


Truth

by sarcasmismyweapon



Series: A pair they make [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Anal Sex, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Frottage, Graphic Scenes Of Violence, Hand Jobs, Happy Ending, Iruka is a badass, M/M, Oral Sex, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Torture, Sex, Team Bonding, graphic scenes of rape, iruka has had a tough life, iruka is lonely, jounin exam, kakashi is awesome, kakashi saves iruka, triggering to some, wave attacks konoha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-11-21 08:58:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 44
Words: 241,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11354151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: when wave attacks konoha, doubts are left in many people's minds as to who can be trusted. the possibility of an all out war leaves the ninja village at odds with itself. a series of events unfold bringing iruka in the hands of the interrogation squad under ibiki to determine if iruka is a threat to konoha or not, as his family hailed from wave originally. iruka must endure not only the torture of the interrogations expert ibiki, but the fact that all his secrets are about to be revealed. including some of the darkest things the chunin has ever come to know in his existence as a shinobi. more so the chunin is about to be thrust into a new life when the anbu overseeing his torture begin to grow attached to the broken man.





	1. waves

**Author's Note:**

> okay so BIG WARNING. this fic has so much angst and stuff that its not funny. it has GRAPHIC depictions of rape, torture, pain conditioning and just overall people being the worst possible scum of the earth. so you have been warned. that said, it has a happy ending and all that nastiness is really just flashbacks. so buckle up and enjoy the ride cause this is a long...long fanfiction. like 242,000 words long. hope you enjoy it, feel free to leave a comment or kudos.
> 
> AUTHOR'S NOTE 2018: YES I AM AWARE OF THE LACK OF CAPITALIZATION! You don't need to write in the comments about how there isn't any capitalization. I just don't have the time to go back and edit 240,000 words. If this bothers you don't read it! The majority of my works no longer have this issue as I've learned how to implement capitalizing along side my fast typing speed. So again THANK YOU, BUT I'M AWARE.

CHAPTER ONE

The attack was sudden and unexpected, there was no warning, no demands nothing. wave attacked with the ferocity its nation was known for. demolishing a good portion of the town and killing and injuring hundreds of people in konoha. konoha’s forces were able to drive the enemy back, protecting their mighty city from falling to the hands of enemy nins. with peace being restored slowly, rebuilding began and the question arose of who could be trusted. many shinobi were 'interviewed' some for longer than others. a few unlucky one's were being held for questioning until it was deemed that they were not a threat to the village. one such unlucky person was one umino iruka. having been born in wave, his family hailing from there and relocating to konoha when he was a child, it could not be certain that the man could be trusted with his loyalty.   
one moment he had been getting ready to leave his broken apartment for a shift in the newly formed recovery center for civilians, when suddenly he was surrounded by anbu who immediately demanded he relinquish all his weapons. standing there in shock iruka just looked at the anbu surrounding him, he'd never seen more than two of them at a time, there were five in his living room. an entire unit.  
"weapons now"  
the stern voice drew him out of his inner musings. realizing that he had taken to long to respond iruka nodded before slowly unclasping his weapons pouch and tossing it to the waiting anbu.  
"what is this about?"  
"umino iruka correct?"  
nodding his head he waited to see where this was going, but the anbu didn’t seem to want to relinquish any more information.  
"you are to come with us"  
looking at the imposing figures invading his ran-shackled apartment all he could do was nod, it wasn’t like he could fight against them or run, not that he would. but being in the presence of such strong shinobi was frightening to the chunin. an anbu stepped forward and grasped his shoulder a little harsher than was necessary. and just like that they disappeared in a puff of smoke.   
they arrived at an unknown location, iruka at first disorientated by the transportation jutsu. he was pushed along until they entered a room with only a single light dangling from the center. dread spread up the chunin's spine. this was an interrogation room. a single chair sat in the middle of the room and as the door swung shut behind them iruka couldn’t help but shiver.  
"take a seat"  
doing as he was told, iruka sat in the rather uncomfortable wooden chair. at first nothing happened. there was nothing but the silence and their breathing. just as he was about to question them, the door swung open to admit ibiki. standing abruptly got two anbu shoving him back in his seat. glancing to the two masked men, iruka returned his focus onto the interrogation specialist.  
"i-i don’t understand, whats going on?"  
"with the recent attack were taking certain precautions"  
nodding his head he waited for the scarred man to continue.   
"your file says you hail from wave"  
realizing what was going on, it hit him like a sack of bricks. they thought he had something to do with the attack on konoha.   
" my parents came from wave, i was raised here"  
"but you were born in wave correct?"  
"yes"  
nodding ibiki wrote something down in the file before continuing.  
"you never advanced past chunin rank, is there a reason for that?"  
the man shrugged which was rather hard considering two anbu still held him in place by his shoulders.  
"i never really wanted to be anything more than a teacher. i love the kids and it just fit with me"  
ibiki nodded before writing something else down. only a second later a horrifying scream echoed down the hall causing the teacher to jump in his seat. the anbu’s hands tightening reflexively at the movement.  
"what was that!?"  
ibiki waved a hand in the air as he nonchalantly said.  
"none of your concern iruka- you answer our questions truthfully and we wont have any problems"  
"why wouldn’t i answer you truthfully why lie? i've lived here my entire life"  
ibiki leaned against the door, staring at the man. his scarred face not moving to portray any emotion. iruka glanced around the room and noted the different masks of the anbu, he'd seen a couple of them in passing when delivering files to the hokage, but he'd never spoken to any anbu besides greeting them courteously. he could see nothing but the darkened eye slits where eyes were supposed to be, naturally it was too dark to even see the eyes starring at him. looking back to ibiki he waited for the man to ask more questions.   
"you've been a school teacher at the academy for how long?"  
"twelve years this may"  
iruka answered factually.   
"you've never really left the village for missions besides a few lower level scroll missions correct"  
"yes that’s right"  
"and you work in the hokage's office"  
nodding his head, iruka offered up.  
"on tuesdays and thursdays after school lets out and i work at the reports office on mondays and wednsdays"  
"why so much work?"  
"i don’t like being bored, i live alone so its not like i have someone to come home to."  
"you realize with your level of clearance and your ability to get to delicate information it makes you a threat to the village if you were compromised"  
iruka nodded to ibiki before saying.  
"i knew that when i signed up to become a shinobi that someday i might be forced to choose between my life and the village.  
nodding ibiki didn’t bother to write any of that information down. instead flipping through a couple of pages until he seemed to get to the page he wanted, he stared intently at the page for a moment before looking up to the chunin in front of him.  
" do you understand why your here?"  
"i think so-my parents relationship with wave was well known before they moved here, you can only assume that i may have some ties there through them, but i don’t. they died in the nine tails attack defending this village and i grew up here"  
nodding ibiki continued to drift through the pages before him, seeming bored by everything the chunin was saying.   
" your well liked by all of your peers, even some higher up officers have mentioned that your a good comrade."  
"um thank you?"  
iruka reached up and scratched at his scar, something he was prone to doing when uncomfortable. ibiki gave a rare smile to the man, before closing the file with a snap and going towards the door. opening it, he turned enough to face the chunin.  
"you'll be staying here a while, so i'd get comfortable if i were you"  
confused, iruka stammered out.  
"wha- but i answered all your questions didn’t i?"  
ibiki nodded, before turning to leave he commented dryly.  
"that doesn’t mean i believe you"  
the door shut with a cold slam leaving iruka in a room of five anbu. total strangers as far as he knew and not people who iruka would see as being on his side of things. they were here to guard him, he was their job right now. admittedly he was relieved when the two anbu holding him in place released him to take their place against the nearest wall with their teammates. no longer having strangers grasping him so tightly allowed the chunin to lean back in the chair. he didn’t know what to think, whether he should be glad that they were taking such precautions for the sake of the village or if he should be mad that they didn’t believe him. that ibiki didn’t believe him, cause that’s what this came down too he was sure. the hokage would base her decision off of what the man said about him. either way it was obvious that he was going to be here until he could convince them otherwise. looking to the nearest anbu he couldn’t help but voice some of his curiosity.  
" does ibiki really think i need five anbu guards? im a chunin?"  
the anbu didn’t respond at first before tilting their head and saying.  
" appearances can be deceiving."  
iruka sighed before closing his eyes. he was getting a headache and he was sure that it was only going to get worse with time. he had nothing to occupy the time with and he wasn’t quite so desperate to try talking with his ‘guards’. so that left him with sitting complacently in the chair that he knew he would have to remain in. standing wasn’t an option, the anbu would take that as a threat and iruka had no desire to find out just how strong these particular anbu were. 

******************

it was some hours later that ibiki came back into the room, iruka was by now getting tired of sitting in the same chair. he didn’t try to get up though to bow to the man like he had tried when he first arrived as he know knew that wouldn’t be allowed.  
"iruka can you explain your where abouts two weeks ago- you were seen leaving the village gates into the forest and you appeared to be gone for nearly three hours"  
iruka reached up and scratched at his scar for a moment before it dawned on him.  
" oh i was out getting teaching aids, i was teaching the kids about natural remedies and went to go get some herbs"  
" and that took three hours?"  
"it did"  
ibiki did not look impressed, but it was the truth, iruka just didn’t know how to make him see it. the next question had the chunin confused.  
" your file says you've had run in with defectors before?"  
"defectors?"  
iruka asked curiously.  
"mizuki"  
iruka looked away and just nodded. ibiki made a hmm sound before jotting something down in his file.   
"you also appear to be very close to the jinchuriki"  
"naruto? yes im close with him, i was his teacher"  
" and you hold no ill will towards the kyuubi vessel for killing your parents?"  
iruka paused before answering, it was a delicate question.  
"i did when i was a child, it was hard not to blame him, but as i grew i learned that he was just as much a victim of the attack as i was."  
ibiki wrote something down once more, before approaching iruka, the chunin reclined in the chair at the mans approach. the interrogations officer didn’t seem to mind and instead got right in his face.  
"it also says you have a temper"  
realizing that the man was trying to get a rise out of him, iruka simply nodded.  
"mostly with people turning in destroyed reports, but i've never hurt anyone"  
still staying in the chunin’s face, ibiki questioned.  
" not just the reports, we have on file that you confronted hatake kakashi about your previous students entrance to the chunin exams"  
iruka nodded, trying to pull away from the man who was practically touching him.  
"i was frustrated, i didn’t think they were ready-then with everything that happened... i apologized afterwards"  
"hmm"  
pulling away from the man, ibiki turned his back to the chunin who was finally able to breath now that his space wasn’t being invaded.   
"this stays in this room am i understood?"  
iruka was about to ask what he was talking about when all five of the anbu said 'hai'. realizing that ibiki wasn’t talking to him, he couldn’t help but swallow hard. he had a bad feeling about this.  
"lastly its noted that you were aspiring towards great things in your genin days, your sensei had high hopes for you and reported so to the hokage"  
feeling that sense of dread grow he just knew where this was going.  
"yet you never tried for jounin rank or even higher ranked missions. instead choosing to stay within the village gates. with one of the legendary sanin as your sensei i would have expected you to at least try for a higher rank, after all im sure he taught you lots. tell me what did you learn from orochimaru?"  
frantic to distance himself from that ‘man’, iruka called out urgently.  
"ibiki-i had no choice in who my sensei was-"  
"oh i cant blame you for that, but with everything that’s happened, with the wars and the fighting between konoha and sound and then your previous student sasuke uchiha goes and joins orochimaru-things don’t look good for your side of the argument. how are we to know you didn’t play a hand in all of that as well?"  
eyes widening, iruka took a deep breath as if he had been punched. this couldn’t be happening, he was being linked to all of these horrible things and they thought he was now behind the recent attack on konoha. he sat there his mouth slightly agape staring at the mans back.  
"anything to say for yourself?"  
ibiki turned around, collecting himself iruka looked to his feet and sighed.  
"no there's nothing i can say to make you believe im not a danger to konoha."  
resigned to his fate and what this could all mean for him, iruka looked up to the interrogation officer.  
"so do your job and do whatever you need to do to make sure im not a threat to konoha."  
arching a brow at the brazen man in front of him, ibiki questioned.  
" you realize what most likely will happen?"  
iruka shrugged looking to the floor again.  
"not really, but its not like it matters how i feel about it"  
"true-very well then, get comfortable"  
iruka had to hold back a laugh at the man’s comment. he ignored everything around him as ibiki left the room again, leaving him once again with only his anbu guards. putting his head in his hands iruka couldn’t believe how this day was turning out, he'd been tired from all the reconstruction they were doing and had dreaded another day of it, but this-this was far worse than any manual labor they could have given him.   
the anbu didn’t say anything-with words, silently they were talking to one another throughout the entire conversation taking place around them. subtle tilts of the head, movements of muscle was all that was needed to ascertain what they were thinking. they couldn’t believe all they had learned about this 'school teacher' by the way things were panning out they were sure to have to use extreme measures to make sure he was telling the truth. none of that would be pleasant for the chunin and truthfully none of them were looking forward to that either.  
iruka was focusing on his breathing so he wouldn’t hyperventilate due to his current situation when another scream broke through the building. tensing up at the sound the teacher eventually released his tensed muscles when the scream died down to a whisper. whatever they were doing in this place was not something he wanted to be part of. he just wanted to go home and go to bed and forget this ever happened. as it was he was trying desperately not to cry out in frustration. he knew it wouldn’t be good to show how this was effecting him, he couldn’t afford to loose his temper at any of the questions being asked or any of the implications being made to make him look bad. so he breathed in and out, in and out. over and over again until he had managed to calm himself somewhat. it wasn’t 100% but it was better than he had been before.   
time passed slowly for the chunin, finally at his wits end he had to ask.  
"how long has it been"  
looking over to the bear mask of an anbu he wasn’t all that surprised when he didn’t get a response. tilting his head back iruka stared at the ceiling, the light was blinding but at least it was a change of scenery, he hadn’t stared at the ceiling yet. he managed to count the cracks in the stone building until the door swung open again. ibiki was back and this time he had a black satchel with him, iruka quickly glanced away, he didn’t want to know what was in the bag. he heard some rustling and then footsteps as ibiki approached.  
"it would be wise of you not to fight"  
iruka refused to make eye contact and instead just nodded his consent to whatever was about to happen to him. it wasn’t like fighting would do anything other than get him roughed up. still he jumped a little when his arm was rather suddenly touched. he saw the anbu flinch as if to jump forward, but when he didn’t move any further they relaxed. ibiki was restraining his left arm to the chair with chakra cord. the cord was cold to the touch and made iruka shiver.  
"problem?"  
the dispassionate voice of his interrogator asked.  
"its cold"  
"ah"  
ibiki ignored his discomfort and proceeded to tie up iruka’s right arm as well. before kneeling to his feet and tying them to the posts of the chair. he was now fully restrained against the chair and could do absolutely nothing about anything they wanted to do to him. it just reinforced how utter alone he was, how he had no control over this situation. he no longer even had the option to try and fight back if he chose too. he was now their prisoner until they decided what to do with him. finally turning his head to look down at himself iruka closed his eyes after taking in the chakra cord wrapped around his body. ironically a random thought popped into his head about tying the chakra cord efficiently, he couldn’t help but let out a laugh which startled everyone in the room. ibiki frowned at the teacher, who was currently looking down at his wrists.  
"something funny?"  
the man asked coldly, no doubt assuming that iruka knew of a way out of the bindings.  
"i just taught this to the kids- chakra cord and its many uses"  
ibiki didn’t comment and neither did any of the anbu, but the eyes behind the masks moved around the room to each other in silent contemplation. taking a breath iruka looked up to ibiki and stated in a matter of fact tone of voice.  
" you guys need better chairs"  
a small smirk graced the interrogators scarred face before he crouched down in front of the school teacher.  
" your going to have more pressing concerns than that chair"  
iruka nodded, letting his head fall down to glance at his wrists again. his mind started to drift to all the horrible things they could do to him, they could kill him and no one would be the wiser, they would just think he had died in the attack, he hadn’t actually seen any of his comrades so it wouldn’t be hard for the anbu to explain away his death, not that they would offer up an explanation to begin with, but they had plenty of options before them. he was well and truly screwed. ibiki rose from his crouched position before nodding to one of the anbu behind iruka. he heard the soft footfalls of the anbu approaching, hearing them stop right behind him. iruka waited for some horrendous pain to spark throughout his body, but nothing happened, instead the anbu came around and knelt to make eye contact, it was in that instant that he knew what was about to happen to him genjitsu.

************

in just a matter of seconds he found himself in another world, his memories it seemed because all of the sudden he was an outsider looking at a much younger version of himself talking with his sensei- he was talking with orochimaru. staring at the scene before him iruka came to the realization that the anbu was watching. iruka didn’t try and break the genjitsu he knew he wouldn’t be able, but he did turn away from the scene playing out in front of him. at the very least he wasn’t being forced to watch it.  
"sensei"  
"yes iruka"  
" how'd you get so strong?"  
"hehehe it took time, and practice lots of practice iruka. just like you and your teammates are doing now"  
the boy looked up into the slitted eyes of his sensei and nodded a cheerful smile on his face.  
"when are we gonna train next?"  
"soon, i have some work to do, but we'll be getting some training in as soon as im done"  
the boy nodded, trusting the figure in front of him. after being silent a moment the man mused out loud to his student.  
"how would you like to do a summons iruka, a very special summons?"  
the boy practically jumped in the air as he nodded his head enthusiastically. the grin that spread a crossed the man’s face belittled the evil lurking in his eyes.

the scene warped around iruka, suddenly changing to the battlefield. he found his back against a tree, a teenage version of himself was fighting in front of him. his other self blocked an incoming kunai and hid himself better behind the tree. iruka knew what he was about to see, but it didn’t stop the memory from playing out before him.

they were pinned down and his sensei was no where to be seen. he was already cut up pretty badly and he couldn’t see his teammates. getting frustrated with his situation, iruka watched in a horrified fashion as his much younger self did a summoning jutsu and sent a large snake to attack his enemies. the cries of pain and death making the boy smile in a manner not all the different from his sensei.

*********

iruka was suddenly jolted out of the memory and back into the chair he was restrained too, he was breathing hard and sweating a little. the anbu didn’t seem to be bothered by the genjitsu at all, simply standing and walking over to ibiki before whispering some things to the man and then returning to their place around the wall. iruka caught his breath, those memories- his sensei.  
"it seems your profile isn’t quite complete iruka, it doesn’t state in here that you have the same summons as orochimaru"  
the teacher shook his head, not bothering to make eye contact as his vainly tried to explain himself.  
"i don’t use it anymore"  
"but you have the ability to release the snake summons onto anyone you choose correct?"  
iruka nodded his head, holding back his frustration at the man’s attempts to find something to use against him. iruka knew he had to hold out against the mental warfare that was sure to come, he would be strong.  
"how many have you killed with that summons?"  
iruka looked up rather suddenly, how many? he had no idea how many times he'd used the technique.  
"i- i don’t know"  
"hmm. i see"  
the man’s tone of voice told iruka all he needed to know about how the man felt about his answer. he didn’t like it. ibiki went back to writing in his little folder before continuing the questions.  
" and have you taught anyone about your snake summons?"  
iruka shook his head back and forth frantically before he verbally explained to the interrogator.  
"no- never i i didn’t want to pass that knowledge on"  
"and why is that?"  
biting his lip, iruka fought with himself on what he should say. what all should he admit to this man who was an ally and yet wasn’t.   
"iruka"  
steeling himself for what was to come, the chunin admitted.  
"its-its not like normal summons, the snakes-they want blood"  
"and you've given them this when you've summoned them?"  
"yes"  
iruka didn’t bother to lie about the summons or their thirst for blood.  
"i see, how long has it been since you used that summons?"  
blinking iruka thought about it a moment before he replied.  
"years"  
ibiki scoffed at that before stating.  
"so you expect us to believe that you hold one of the most dangerous kinds of summons in existence and you don’t use it?"  
swallowing stiffly, iruka nodded his head.  
"yes"  
"you see how this looks do you not?"  
iruka nodded his head, looking to his feet he was suddenly fascinated by the chakra cord wrapped around his legs.  
"since it seems that were getting no where on that front how about we move onto something else. having worked in the reports room you have reported directly to the hokage many times have you not?"  
iruka nodded.  
"bringing files and reports to his desk whenever he needed them and offering council in certain situations."  
again iruka nodded.  
"and did you ask the hokage to go easy on your sensei when they announced him as a missing nin?"  
iruka bit his lip again, almost to the point of blood, he had been so foolish as a child. he'd idealized his sensei like most students do. he’d wanted so desperately to see his sensei change...with a somber voice iruka admitted.  
"yes- i asked for leniency"  
" and your sensei ended up getting away did he not?"  
"yes"  
"did you have any part in warning him that the hokage suspected him of committing the kidnappings?"  
shaking his head, iruka answered somberly.  
"i didn’t know anything about it at the time. i didn’t find out until afterwards... like the rest of the village."  
ibiki scowled at the chunin before asking.  
"would you have intervened on your sensei's behalf if you had information that could have aided his escape."  
he didn’t know how much more of this he could take. when would the questions end, why did they have to bring his sensei into this? it had nothing to do with wave’s attack. after hearing his name being called once more, iruka finally answered the previous question.  
"no"  
"so you would have abandoned your sensei to whatever fate the hokage deemed fitting?"  
"yes"  
"and what of your teammates?"  
iruka shrugged, he really didn’t want to talk about all this, but he knew ibiki was going to go there.  
"it states in your file that one died on a mission early into your teams progression, orochimaru claimed that he could do nothing for the boy."  
"he bled out"  
iruka stated factually.  
"i see, and the wound?"  
"kunai to the chest "  
"who implemented the wound?"  
iruka shrugged before clarifying.  
"i don’t know- i didn’t see anything."  
"so you were beside your teammate yet you didn’t see who had attacked him?"  
"i was just a kid"  
"but you didn’t notice a nin sneaking up and then stabbing your teammate? they left you alive out of some mercy?"  
shaking his head, iruka looked to ibiki.  
"i didn’t see the attack because i was bleeding all over myself, the scar on my face, i was currently trying to wipe blood off of my face when he was attacked. sensei was able to get to me before they could finish me off, but by then it was already to late."  
sighing ibiki stood up straight, looking down to the man he was interrogating, things weren’t looking good for the chunin that much was for sure. there was just too many connections to him and bad occurrences in konoha.  
" i think were done for now- we'll talk again in the morning"  
ibiki turned to leave and iruka realized they were going to leave him tied up to the chair, he almost spoke up but then remembered that they wouldn’t care if he was comfortable or not, clamping him mouth shut he leaned his head back closing his eyes. the sound of the door shutting sounded louder than it ever had before.   
"i have a question?"  
iruka inhaled deeply, so now he got to answer the anbu's questions too?  
"why didn’t you defect with your sensei when he fled konoha?"  
biting the inside of his cheek he had to hold back the need to shout at the anbu. instead he took another deep breath and released it carefully. having collected himself at least partially, iruka informed the anbu once more.  
"i wasn’t apart of any of it"  
the silence was deafening, time seemed to stand still and iruka began to idly wonder if he was trapped in another illusion. but a quick glance to the side proved the tiger anbu to be where she stood before. closing his eyes again he tried to relax, but it was impossible to get comfortable when chained to a chair in one position. eventually he gave up on sleep and simply stared at the ceiling, deciding to count the cracks again.  
it must have been morning because ibiki came in briefly to tell the anbu to take a break and that he'd watch iruka. the anbu filed out without a word leaving the chunin with the interrogations officer. this time ibiki had a chair with him, turning it around he straddled the chair backwards resting his arms on the top of the back of the chair.   
"so, did you sleep well?"  
unable to withhold his retort iruka snidely commented.  
"like a princess"  
ibiki didn’t respond right away, instead taking the time to analyze the man before him. it was obvious the man was tired, his muscles were probably just starting to complain at the position they were in. it would be some time before he really started to feel it, and when that happened- well ibiki had some choice questions for when the chunin started to crack.


	2. bad memories come calling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> being interrogated to prove his innocence, iruka must endure all sorts of mind games. ibiki isn't known for his compassion and the ninja doesn't seem to have any problems with sticking to his M.O. how will iruka deal with some of his darkest secrets coming to light?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so the first chapter already has the warning about the graphic violence, abuse, rape all sorts of nasty business. so i shouldn't need to warn you again, but just for shits and giggles. things get bad before they get better. like really bad....so ya you've been warned.

the anbu walked quietly down the hallway, going into an adjoining room they sat in comfortable silence for a couple minutes before bear spoke up.  
"orochimaru"  
"can you believe it? i never would have guessed it?"  
the remaining nin just nodded their heads. before the wolf anbu spoke.  
"it seems the village does not know everything there is to know about umino iruka"

**********

"so tell me iruka, was it always your plan to stay at the academy teaching?"  
iruka nodded tiredly, he really was starting to feel the ache in his joints.  
"you realize that there is a good chance that you will not be able to return to that position even if we conclude this investigation."  
iruka looked down to this feet, he had feared that might be the case. not many people would want someone who had been 'interviewed' by the interrogation team to teach their children. he’d had a hard enough time getting the teaching position to begin with, after this keeping it would be near impossible.  
"how does that make you feel?"  
"frustrated"  
"your not angry? sad?"  
letting out a deep breath iruka didn’t answer the implications brought on by ibiki. so the man continued with another line of questioning.the door opened as the anbu filed back into the room, retaking their places against the walls. ibiki didn’t acknowledge their presence and iruka didn’t bother to look up.  
"lets move on shall we? your file doesn’t state it but it was generally believed that you had a romantic connection with mizuki, is that correct?"  
iruka’s head flew up at the question. he couldn’t believe it, how did they know anything about his private life that wasn’t related to events in konoha's history? no one knew about any of that, he’d kept it a well guarded secret. he blinked a few times before his mind supplied the answer to his turmoil. the hokage. he was the only one who ever figured it all out. staring at ibiki he gave the man a hardened look.  
"were you in a relationship with mizuki?"  
"yes"  
unable to hold himself to staring at the man who seemed to be enjoying his torment iruka let his head drop down to his chest. he was beginning to give up hope of the questions ever ending. of anyone believing him.  
"i see, and did you help him to obtain the scroll? did you tell the nine tails vessel where the scroll was located inside the hokage tower?"  
"no"  
"it said in the report that although you incurred a substantial injury from mizuki's attack you did not add that to the list of charges brought before the council when they sentenced him. why is that?"  
iruka shrugged, he really didn’t have an answer for that, part of it might have been he still couldn’t believe his lover had turned against the village. another part of it might have been he didn’t want to get mizuki in any more trouble than he already was in. really it didn’t matter, it all came down to how the events were interpreted.  
"i see, in order for this to work your going to have to start answering me with more than yes, no or a shrug. is that understood?"  
withholding his anger he looked up to the man who was relentlessly digging into his past.  
"hai"  
apparently amused by the harsh answer given to him by the chunin, ibiki smirked and spoke once more.  
"good- now if you didn’t have anything to do with the the scroll being stolen and mizuki really did attack you with intent to kill, why is it that the kyubbi vessel was the one to bring down the man attacking you both?"  
"naruto"  
"excuse me?"  
"his name is naruto"  
ibiki discarded iruka’s argument about using the boys name as if it was commonplace to him.  
"answer the question iruka"  
beginning to chafe at the amount of questions and the overall lack of apparent understanding, iruka snapped back.  
"check my medical file"  
"i already did"  
"then you have your answer"  
scratching his chin, ibiki thought about it before replying.  
"i'd rather hear it from you?"  
"i'd rather not talk about any of this"  
"we don’t always get what we want iruka, and answering me is the only way your ever going to get out of here"  
iruka’s frustration was mounting, it was obvious that ibiki had already made up his mind about him, that he believed him to be guilty of conspiring against the village. propably more than once if his line of questioning was anything to go by. his taunting of being released if he talked was starting to irritate the chunin as he was well aware of his present situation. ibiki was just trying to get a confession or enough bad memories dredged up to offer up as a motive as proof of his crimes or involvement. sighing wearily, iruka asked.  
"how do you do this day in and day out?"  
"i'll ask the questions"  
iruka snorted before turning his head away. ibiki raised an eyebrow at the chunin's response. it seemed that he was starting to get somewhere.  
"are you refusing to corporate with this investigation?"  
the edge to the man’s voice had iruka muttering out a sour.  
"no"  
"good, cause i'd hate to have to influence you to reconsider"  
iruka shivered a bit at the mans harsh tone, it was clear that the alternative was not something that iruka would like and he was well versed in why ibiki had the job he had. the third had once explained a great many things to him, stuff he wished he hadn’t learned to be truthful.  
"now how about we cover your chunin exam?"  
"sure"  
iruka muttered. ibiki ignored the man’s lackluster response, instead choosing to continue his questioning.  
"you were given the chance to take the chunin exam shortly after your first teammate died in the field is that correct"  
"if that’s what it says happened"  
iruka retorted blandly. frowning ibiki approached the chunin and grabbed iruka’s chin forcing him to look into ibiki’s steely eyes.  
"answer me"  
glaring up at his interrogator iruka raised his voice a bit as he called back to the man holding his face captive.  
"it already tells you what you want to know, i failed my first attempt at the chunin exam, i was later given another chance the following year as a single candidate because my previous remaining teammate had passed the previous year."  
"alright, after you passed your chunin exam they allowed you to start going on harder missions outside the village is that correct?"  
"yes"  
ibiki smiled and released the mans face, allowing iruka to look once more at the floor.  
"you were paired up with your remaining teammate for a retrieval mission through wind country correct?"  
"yes"  
"and what happened?"  
"he died"  
frowning ibiki leafed through the packet he held, before rephrasing his question.  
"yes he did, but how did he die iruka?"  
iruka sighed, he knew it would come down to things like this, where he was trapped in a rock and a hard place. there was no easy way to say what needed to be said and there was no way that ibiki was going to take it for what it was.  
"i killed him"  
ibiki wrote some more notes down in his book.  
"and why did you do that iruka?"  
"he asked me too"  
the amount of disbelief in the man’s tone told iruka more than the words coming from the man’s mouth did just how messed up this whole thing sounded.  
"so your teammate asked you to kill him, while on a delicate mission and you just did what he asked?"  
"yes"  
"that's awfully kind of you, how did you finish the mission?"  
"i didn’t, i failed it."  
"it says here that the information was obtained by a rival group and lost to konoha. your teammates body was recovered with some difficulty by a group of jounin who found you and escorted you home correct?"  
"yes"  
"you were uninjured is that correct?"  
"yes"  
"that’s an intriguing situation don’t you think?"  
iruka nodded his head.  
"my luck sucks i guess"  
"and you were not punished for killing your teammate correct?"  
"they revoked my mission status for a year"  
ibiki nodded his head.  
“a light sentence for killing a fellow shinobi.”  
iruka stared blankly back at the man. ibiki frowned having not gotten a rise out of the man in front of him. moving on the interrogator said.  
" so you were restrained to being inside the village walls. is that when you decided to become a teacher?"  
"no"  
"alright, so what did you do during that year?"  
"mostly pranks"  
iruka said with a small tilt to his lips. ibiki frowned back at him as he restated the man’s words.  
"pranks?"  
nodding his head iruka had a faint smile as he recalled his previous exploits around konoha.  
"yeah, painted the monument mountain green, switched peoples weapons out for other items-"  
"so you caused disorder to the village while already on probation."  
sighing again iruka nodded his head, mumbling out a small statement of truth.  
"i was lost"  
"lost? how so"  
not wanting to talk about that time in his life, but knowing he had opened that can of worms, iruka answered.  
"i had no one"  
"i believe the hokage was quite lenient with you in all of your exploits around town and even went so far as to invite you to his quarters numerous times for tea, does that qualify as having no one?"  
"forget it, i don’t know how to explain it and it happened many years ago, it has nothing to do with any of this."  
"we have all the time in the world iruka, find the right words"  
there was a long pause before the chunin's voice came out quite somber.  
"people always leave me"  
"leave you?"  
"they die"  
"is that why you haven’t attached yourself to anyone in particular since mizuki?"  
snorting, iruka replied.  
"sure"  
"is it the reason or not?"  
sighing iruka admitted.   
"i don’t know"  
readjusting himself on his chair, ibiki watched the chunin in front of him. it wasn’t going to take much to break him. he was already beginning to crack at the seams. a little more and they would have all the information they needed to pass judgment on the chunin.   
"your fellow chunin say your isolated"  
"i guess so"  
iruka’s tone of voice led them all to believe he didn’t care much for that assessment of himself.  
"is there a reason you don’t go out with them when the structure groups get together?"  
"i-i don’t really like drinking, makes me sick most of the time and i normally have plenty of work to do once im at home to prepare for the next day of classes. its just not something i do alright?"  
ignoring the man’s explanation ibiki stated factually.  
"so you have a low tolerance for stimulants and depressants?"  
iruka rolled his eyes before he nodded his head accompanied by the verbal response of.  
"yeah, i’d go with that."  
standing abruptly, ibiki nodded once more to the anbu before leaving the room. iruka sighed, tilting his head back to be able to begin counting the cracks again as there was nothing else to do to pass the time. he got up to 65 before he was interrupted.  
"ibiki is being quite lenient with you- you should show him some respect"  
iruka huffed, not bothering to reply to the anbu, instead continuing to count, silently speaking the numbers as he went, moving his lips. one of the anbu caught on to his moving lips and asked.  
"what are you doing?"  
not bothering to ignore the question as for once it didn’t revolve around his past and seemed harmless enough, iruka answered the anbu truthfully to his new pass time.  
"counting"  
"counting what?"  
"ceiling cracks"  
collectively all of the anbu looked up at the ceiling before returning their gaze to the tilted iruka.  
"have you always had a problem with authority?"  
one of them asked. turning his head over to look at the anbu, iruka smiled.  
"with all due respect anbu-san. read my damn file"  
turning his head back to the ceiling he was mildly surprised when the anbu didn’t hurt him in retaliation for his disrespect. instead the man took the time to only state a warning.  
"watch your tongue"  
it was impossible to tell how long he’d been there, but he was guessing that almost a full twelve hours had passed before ibiki returned once more. iruka was tired, sore and just wanted to have a warm meal. he knew none of those were options for him. throughout the twelve hours the screaming down the hall had gotten progressively worse, before reaching a crescendo early in what iruka suspected was the morning. then it stopped. unable to stop himself he had muttered.  
"thank kami"  
the anbu tilted their heads towards him in response. though none of them dared to comment on his remark about the noise stopping. that had been hours ago. now ibiki took his seat again, analyzing the chunin before him. it was obvious they weren’t going to get much more out of iruka like this. he was slowly shutting himself off from them. it was a normal tactic, one that could easily be broken through.  
"were going to try something different today alright iruka"  
opening his eyes, he winced at the harshness of the light overhead, before glancing over to ibiki.  
"sure"  
once again the tiger anbu came forward, iruka took a deep breath, not bothering to try and avoid eye contact. he knew they'd just hold him still and pry his eyes open. instead he looked straight ahead as if daring the anbu to do their worst. as if the woman understood his silent request. she did.

*********

it wasn’t a moment longer before iruka found himself in his old apartment. he was alone as far as he could tell, walking around he saw the casual mess he normally left around his apartment, graded papers and weapons on the floor that needed tending to. he didn’t understand what this memory was of until he saw mizuki come around the corner. his heart froze inside his chest, it was that memory. he'd never told anyone about this- pulling back, he found resistance as the anbu refused to allow him to hide from the memory. instead making him face this hollow reality that had been created to be his own hell.   
mizuki came around the corner from the hallway, blood stained clothes on, he walked slowly and stealthily through the house, coming to stop at the bedroom. the man opened the door without making a sound. there lying on the bed was himself. sleeping calmly through the night. mizuki approached, pulling a kunai from his pouch, he crawled up the length of the bed and using some chakra cord brought irukas hands up and with a swift movement tied a complicated knot around the man’s now bound wrists. using a kunai to secure the restrained arms of the sleeping man mizuki brought the man’s arms above his head. sinking the kunai into the headboard of the bed with a meaty thud, making it so iruka couldn’t move his arms away from the headboard. iruka jolted awake and immediately started to struggle, he was about to cry out when something was shoved in his mouth.  
"come of ruru, don’t be like that. i’ve missed you."  
iruka stilled instantly. he knew that voice. squinting through the dark his eyes widened as they took in the bloodied form of his best friend and lover. mizuki was smiling, but it wasn’t a normal smile. this was a predators smile. iruka bucked trying to offset the other chunin, but all it got him was a hit to the head that made him see stars and the white haired chunin proceeded to tie his legs apart to each of the wood bed posts at the foot of the bed. iruka began to cry, he knew what was about to happen to himself. he'd experienced it too many times to count. mizuki had a mean streak a mile long and once it was triggered you had best hold on for the ride. the nin quickly divested himself and iruka of their clothing. rubbing suggestively against the man below him he groaned.  
"oh ruru i've missed this"  
iruka's head shook back and forth as tears began to fall from his face. this couldn’t be happening to him. it just couldn’t be. a hand reached down and began to stroke his limp member, the sensation was making him sick to his stomach. he didn’t want this. not like this. regardless of his wants, it wasn’t long before his member was hard in the hands of his would be lover. mizuki was smiling down at him as he trailed sweat kisses down the nins body. stopping only when he got to the mans nipples, he quickly savaged one by biting it into his mouth. causing iruka to buck underneath him at the sudden discomfort. the taller nin was grinding himself against the prone figure below him, groaning as his excitement was evident in his hard member standing erect against his belly. it wasn’t long before mizuki moved further down his body. trailing bites as he went, none of them gentle. iruka twisted about trying desperately to unseat the nin on top of him. he knew it was slim that he would actually do that and that he had even less of a chance to escape his bindings before the other nin attacked again, but he couldn’t simply do nothing. mizuki seemed to enjoy his struggles, biting down harder on the tan flesh beneath him. before finally reaching his goal. his hand sliding up and down the turgid flesh in between iruka’s thighs. his other hand trailing around to tease the teachers quivering opening. iruka cried out at the sudden intrusion, he wasn’t being prepared properly, there was no lube just dry penetration. he screamed against his gag, tears beginning to trail down his face.  
iruka could only watch in horror as the memory of that night was replayed for him, watching mizuki take full control over him, debase him and abuse him. for the first time he showed some resistance to the genjitsu, trying to pull his mind away from the images in front of his eyes. all it got him was a sharp pain in his head for his troubles as the anbu quickly overrided his attempts to break the genjitsu. tears were streaming down his face as he watched horrified as mizuki continued to abuse his body in the memory.   
mizuki withdrew his finger from the shaking body beneath him, instead moving iruka’s hips to splay wider for him to be able to position himself closer to the fragile opening of the teacher. his erect member throbbed with the need to be inside the chunin and without mercy he lined himself up with the opening and plunged himself in with one quick thrust. iruka screamed as he was penetrated with no preparation. his eyes wide as the pain registered to his brain, mizuki didn’t bother to stop once he was fully seated in the chunin, instead he began to thrust in a vigorous pace, groaning as he ruined the body beneath him. blood was freely flowing from their connection as iruka’s body tried to supplement the lack of preparation. iruka’s head thrashed from side to side as he pulled against the bindings tieing him to the bed. mizuki didn’t seem to mind his thrashing, if anything it seemed to make the man happier.   
"oh gods iruka, your so tight, so warm"  
he thrust harder, faster into the body beneath him never minding the amount of pain he was inflicting on his 'lover'. iruka couldn’t help but buck at each thrust forced the air out of his lungs, his breathing coming in harsh pants through his nose, he thought he was going to pass out, but that mercy never happened. he was awake through it all, for every agonizing second of his torture. it wasn’t long before the thrusting into his body grew erratic and harder as the man sought out his own release. mizuki finally came inside the school teacher, his hot cum scorching the torn passageway. iruka screamed harder as he felt the warm liquid fill his body. mizuki collapsed on top of him, breathing heavily.  
iruka watched the scene, he had no other choice. finally he whispered.  
"haven’t you seen enough"  
there was no reply in the void that was the memory, but the scene changed just the same. iruka sat before the third, the elderly man was watching him intently as iruka looked out the window.  
"iruka"  
"hmm"  
" you realize that your testimony would go a long way in his trial. you don’t need to share details, just inform the council that he was abusive in your relationship"  
iruka shook his head, turning back to the elderly man he smiled faintly.  
"im sorry-i-i just cant"  
respectfully bowing he rose up to leave. pausing at the doorway iruka made one last plea.  
"please don’t tell anyone"  
"as you wish"

*******************

like a bolt of lightning iruka was suddenly back in the room with the anbu, tears were streaming down his face as his head jerked at the sudden removal of the others mind from his. allowing his head to rest against his chest he heaved air in and out. one of his darkest secrets was out, it could never be hidden again. the anbu stood but before walking over to ibiki, she calmly stated.  
"it was stupid of you to resist me"  
iruka didn’t bother to reply, the throbbing in his head already told him that. the anbu approached their leader and whispered into the mans ear before returning to her place along the wall.  
"so you like torture, is that it?"  
iruka continued to pant, tears dropping to hit his pant leg. he was so tired. his head was killing him and all he wanted was for this to end.  
"what do you want me to say"  
ibiki tilted his head to the side, before continuing.  
"the truth"  
"you already have it"  
ibiki made a small noise in his throat that obviously meant he didn’t believe the chunin. iruka heard the door open and close, he was once again in the room alone with only the anbu for his company. for some reason he didn’t care if they saw him cry anymore, there was no avoiding it now. so he sat there tied to the chair and sobbed. letting his anguish over his situation get the better of him.  
the anbu watched silently, only one of them knowing what had transpired in the genjitsu, but looking to their comrades eyes they saw genuine remorse for the chunin. it was obvious something had made the man crack his strong facade. none of them said a word as the school teacher sobbed against his chest. there was nothing to say.

***************************

it was another couple hours before the door opened again, and in that time iruka had managed to stop crying, his head remained down against his chest, he couldn’t look them in the eye anymore. they knew things about him that no one was supposed to know. he saw through the fringe of his bangs that ibiki retook his seat in the other chair in front of him.  
"you didn’t testify against mizuki"  
at the point where he just didn’t give a damn anymore what ibiki or the anbu around him thought of him iruka shook his head, iruka knew that the file said all of this so why were they making him repeat it? to rub salt in the wounds?  
"as such he got a lighter sentence, he should be released in another five years on probation for another two and then be reevaluated for active duty again. that falls completely to you"  
ah so that was his game. it was iruka’s fault that someone like mizuki would be getting out of prison earlier than what ibiki obviously thought the man deserved. sighing iruka closed his eyes, he had known that by not testifying against his lover, to not tell the truth to the council because it had been to degrading that mizuki would get off light.  
" so are you hoping to reconnect with him when he gets out? let him do all those things to you again?"  
"no"  
it was quiet, his voice raspy from all the crying he had done.  
"then why not testify, the third himself requested that you tell the truth"  
"i couldn’t"  
iruka pleaded out, he doubted someone like ibiki would understand, especially if someone as great as the third hadn’t. still he let himself believe for only a moment that he would be understood.  
"why"  
" he was a good shinobi-until the incident with naruto he had a perfect record"  
ibiki frowned at the chunin before him.  
"so you didn’t testify because you thought it would tarnish his record?"  
"he was a good teacher- we have so few of those"  
"so instead you would allow your abuser to teach school children who cant defend themselves."  
iruka shook his head back and forth.  
"he never would have hurt the chil-"  
ibiki lashed out with all the fury of a serpent, cutting off iruka’s attempts to placate the situation.  
"he attacked you and a child when he recovered the scroll did he not"  
iruka nodded, ibiki knew what he was doing, he dug in all the right areas to elicit a response, and with each answer iruka felt his small glimmer of hope to get out of this fading.  
"so why didn’t you testify?"  
"i was foolish-i still believed him to be my friend on some level"  
"even after he raped you"  
the cold tone in which the dreaded words were said stung in a way iruka hadn’t been prepared for. iruka didn’t bother to answer that, the silence in the room spoke volumes for the conversation presently going on. the anbu had tensed at the word rape. it made iruka smile. so now it was out there, the vile word, he idly wondered if the anbu around him thought poorly of him now.  
"we have reports that you visited him in prison, why is that?"  
iruka shrugged, at the sound of the chair scraping the concrete floor he took a deep breath as his hair was yanked and he was forced to come eye to eye with an obviously irate ibiki. iruka was surprised by the man losing his cool over something as benign as mizuki. in the grand scheme of things he was small fry compared to the real accusations being thrown about.  
"why did you visit him?"  
"i wanted to help him"  
he gritted out through clenched teeth.  
his hair was let go, his head falling back to his chest. ibiki took a step back before regarding the chunin coolly.   
"you've made a lot of bad decisions, these reflect badly on you"  
iruka nodded, he didn’t have anything to say about that. he was always an optimist, and it always came to bite him in the ass. only this time he wasn’t sure if he was going to get out of it alive.   
"moving on- it says here in a report about the children you taught that you believed the uchiha heir to be a respectful and confident young man who had a bright future- you didn’t suspect anything wrong with the boy"  
ah there it was, poke a little more. iruka shook his head.  
"no one did-we should have known better, but no one wanted to see just how badly he wanted revenge against his brother"  
"hmm, and after he left, did you encourage the jinchurki to go after him?"  
"naruto-i told him to do what he thought was right, he chose to not give up on his friend"  
"and your advice was it from your personal experience with mizuki?"  
taking a deep breath iruka couldn’t help but laugh a little which startled the anbu around him.  
"i was just trying to help"  
"i see- and you somehow thought that giving him advice similar to your own actions with mizuki would be best? lets move on as it appears your ability to recognize flaws in people are skewed, you visited mizuki at least once a week after he was incarcerated correct?"  
"yes"  
"it says that up until the attack this month you were still seeing him"  
"yes"  
"and your visits what did they entail?"  
iruka sighed and with a bored tone of voice replied to the eager man in front of him.  
"we just talked- i tried to get him to see reason about what he'd done."  
nodding his head ibiki took the time to write something more down before continuing the tiresome conversation.  
"and did he have an epiphany?"  
iruka snorted before adding.  
"no-he's angry with me"  
"about what?"  
the man’s idle curiosity had iruka answering him.  
"that i chose naruto over him"  
"and why did you choose the jinchuriki over your lover? was it because of the abuse? if there hadn’t been any history of abuse would you have sided with mizuki?"  
"no, i chose naruto because he was an innocent in all of this, he never asked to be the vessel for the nine tails and he was just a stupid kid who didn’t know he was being used. i wouldn’t have betrayed the village for mizuki even if he..i wouldn’t."  
taking a breath after his long speech, iruka couldn’t help but let his mind wander, how much longer was this going to go on? would they keep him here until he starved or died of dehydration? or were they waiting for him to break?  
"iruka-IRUKA"  
jolting iruka raised his head up to see the displeased man staring at him.  
"i said why did you choose to give the jinchuriki his hitae when he had failed the previous tests for genin?"  
iruka frowned for a moment before he shook his head and told the man in front of him the truth of the matter.  
"he earned it, he showed everything that a shinobi is, he didn’t run and hide like a child would, he decided to stand and fight against a much more experienced fighter in order to protect another."  
nodding his head, ibiki began to walk around the room, iruka didn’t bother to follow him with his eyes, it would only make him dizzy. ibiki was trying to make up his mind on what to do next with the chunin, there were so many gaps in his history, so many times the chunin could have revealed information to the enemies of konoha, it was a wonder that he had been under their radar for so long.  
"do you understand that there are many things in this report that look bad for you, your association with known defectors, your inability to aid in their capture and the continued failure to protect those around you from further harm because of this."  
iruka nodded, he understood. ibiki came around to stand in front of him once more. the man gave a subtle signal and the anbu began to leave the room. looking up iruka watched them go, before focusing on ibiki.  
"sit tight we'll be back- i wouldn’t try anything either there will be guards throughout this place"  
iruka twisted his head away, there was no way he could feasibly get out of here and ibiki knew it. the man was just taking some sick enjoyment over the fact that iruka could do nothing to change his current situation. the door slammed shut and the light was abruptly turned off, alone in the darkness iruka allowed himself to cry once more.


	3. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> having been in the interrogation teams hands for a while now, iruka thinks he's faced all they have to throw at him. how very wrong the poor chunin is, ibiki has a bag of tricks and he's about to use them. likewise iruka spends the breaks between torture sessions to get to know his anbu guard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! so glad that people seem to like how the story is going. heads up things get pretty heated in the next couple chapters. also fair warning this is a long story. if things work out how i think they will your looking at a total 44 chapter long fanfic. each chapter should be around 5,000 words and i'll do my best to try and post at least one chapter daily as the story is already finished. its just a matter of me posting it all.
> 
> also I dont have a beta, so all mistakes are mine and i do my best to sort through everything, but hey im human and i was not an english major in college. so yeah...sorry.

ibiki joined the anbu in the adjoining room, he knew they would have questions, especially if they were going to continue to not only watch the man, but inflict any sort of torture to gain answers from him.  
"he was raped?"  
ibiki nodded. rifling through his papers as he answered their question in a bored fashion.  
"repeatedly, looks like over a span of two to three years, the hokage wasn’t exactly sure when they got together and when the abuse started. iruka didn’t report anything so no one was the wiser. i only had what the third had written as proof until tiger found the memory."  
the anbu shook their heads, the school teacher hadn’t bothered to fight back against his aggressor, instead choosing to move in with the bastard and allow the abuse to get worse. or so ibiki eluded.  
" with his connections with missing nin, im afraid were going to have to use more extreme measures to make sure that he is indeed telling us the truth about everything. if any of you have any problems with that, speak now"  
"we joined this team for a reason ibiki, to protect konoha and regardless of personal feelings towards any of the people we’ve questioned we will continue to do our duty."  
ibiki nodded, he figured as much, but he had to give them the option to leave. this was a stressful time in konoha.  
" i think were done with the genjitsu for now, so just observe him overnight try and get him to talk with you about anything earn his trust, from this report that shouldn’t be hard to do. even the third wrote extensively about iruka’s willingness to be friendly and trust too easily to strangers, let alone fellow shinobi."  
the anbu nodded their heads, going to return to the room that they had exited just a moment prior, ibiki stopped them with one final comment.  
"remember no matter what he tells you, dig deeper. if he is a threat to the village...whether from now or in the past, he will be dealt with."  
the anbu opened the door to the room they had left the man in and blinked rather suddenly as soon as the light came on. iruka was still where they left him, sorta. instead of being upright the chair was on its back and the man was staring at the ceiling. with the sudden light being turned back on the chunin was blinking owlishly up at them as they circled the fallen man.frowning bear was the one to question what the man had been doing.  
"what were you doing?"  
"my neck hurt"  
"and?"  
"so i decided to lie down"  
quirking an eyebrow behind his mask, he looked to his comrades, they seemed amused by the chunin's response. reaching down, bear quickly righted the chunin's chair forcing iruka to try and scrunch up his neck to release the tension.   
"don’t do that again"  
the anbu warned sternly to which iruka nodded, the chunin closed his eyes and waited, when nothing happened he couldn’t help but let his curiosity get the better of him.  
"so now what?"  
"now we wait"  
"for ibiki?"  
"no for you"  
tilting his head sideways he winced as his neck popped suddenly. he didn’t understand what they were referring too.  
"me? umm im kinda not going anywhere guys"  
the anbu remained silent, sighing iruka tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling again. at least he could see if any more cracks had developed since the last time he counted all 65 of them. nope still all there. smiling to himself he allowed his eyes to close and tried to sleep, he knew it probably wouldn’t happen what with being in such a horrible position to rest in the first place, but he figured he should at least try.  
"if you were allowed to leave- what would you do?"  
iruka opened his eyes, so they were ordered to keep him awake. as if sleep deprivation on top of everything else was really needed. tilting his head to face the anbu who was talking to him iruka shrugged.  
"depends on what im allowed to do, i have no illusions that because of this i'll be closely watched for some time, my position as a teacher will most likely be taken from me and i will be forced either to take low level missions if im allowed outside the gates or menial desk work for the rest of my life."  
"you wouldn’t run?"  
"run where? i have no where to go, konoha is my home. besides its not like i could outrun you guys even if i tried. so whats the point. might as well just sit and enjoy the ride"  
"is this fun for you?"  
the anbu asked in a tight voice. iruka shook his head, before responding  
"is this fun for you?"  
the anbu didn’t answer him, looking back to the ceiling he started to count again, but was interrupted once more.  
"your refusal to answer questions will not help you in this matter"  
"neither will answering"  
iruka retorted swiftly and with only a hint of frustration marring his voice. the anbu tilted his masked face to the side. silently asking the chunin to elaborate. staring at the mask of the anbu who was waiting for something, iruka sighed and said.  
"i've been telling the truth, but its obvious that you or ibiki don’t believe me and since the hokage and the council will be listening to your statements instead of mine, there really is no point in continuing to talk to you"  
"don’t you want your side heard?"  
iruka gave the anbu a put out look before he retorted.  
"no one's hearing it now, so why waste my breath?"  
as long as he kept his eyes open he found the anbu remained silent, but as soon as he started to try and close them they began asking questions in order to keep him awake. by now he'd been up for what he thought was three days, in that time he hadn’t been allowed to eat or drink anything and his bladder was to the point of bursting, but he knew better than to announce his discomfort. so he counted cracks-again.  
the day or night progressed slowly to iruka, he was never allowed to sleep, and that was beginning to have an adverse effect on his mood. his temper was beginning to show through much the amusement of the anbu watching him. closing his eyes for a moment he ignored when the anbu tried to ask him another question, when the question was asked again and he refused to open his eyes, he found his shoulder in a tight grip of an unhappy anbu, the squeeze was painful but nothing he couldn’t handle, so he ignored it. they would have to do much more than that to influence iruka into complying. his hair was grasped next and his head jerked back he winced at the motion but otherwise didn’t respond, he refused to give into their subtle demands that he open his eyes. he was tired damn it, and even if it was only a few minutes he was determined to rest his eyes. the grasp on his shoulder tightened and he grit his teeth as the clawed gloved hand began to dig into his tender flesh.  
"i'd open your eyes now"  
the threat was there, but for some reason iruka just couldn’t find it in himself to care. part of him was breaking, knowing that no one was going to come and rescue him, these were his allies, were supposed to be his allies and they were the one inflicting this torture onto him. the grasp on his shoulder suddenly disappeared and for one moment he thought they were going to leave him be for a while. he couldn’t have been more wrong. a sharp punch to his gut had his eyes slamming open as he gasped when the air flew out of his lungs. coughing he curled in on himself as much as the bindings would allow him too.  
"you were warned."  
came the cold words as the anbu retook his place against the wall. catching his breath iruka let his head hang down. his hair having come loose from his usual hair tie to fall in front of his face giving him a small curtain of which to look out through. he figured he could try to fall asleep as he was now, but somehow he knew the anbu would figure out his ploy and more punishment would come his way. he was about to try adjusting himself in the chair when the anbu spoke up.  
"stay awake"  
"i am"  
iruka snapped back. the chunin adjusted himself in the chair as much as possible, it didn’t take away from the ache in his muscles or the stiffness in his joints but it gave him something to do. looking through his bangs he couldn’t resist asking.  
"don’t you get bored just watching people"  
"its what we do"  
the anbu shrugged as he spoke the answer, iruka hadn’t expected an answer, but it did clarify that these anbu weren’t going anywhere and were constantly analyzing his every move. twisting his wrists around in the constraints got him a popping sound that he groaned at. leaning back in the chair he tried to pop his back with no success. sighing he gave up. it was obvious this was part of their plan. make the person as uncomfortable as possible and then start drilling them with questions to the point of them just wanting the luxury of a new position. finally bored out of his mind iruka decided to start just asking random questions he'd always had about the anbu corps. it wasn’t like he could get in trouble for asking such things anymore. he was in as deep as he could get at this point he was sure. tilting his head to the side to stare at the anbu who he assumed had been the one to punch him, iruka asked.  
"do you report directly to the hokage or ibiki?"  
the bear anbu regarded him coolly before replying  
"both"  
nodding his head iruka lifted his head to be able to look the anbu in the eye, or mask as it were.   
"how many people are here? being interviewed i mean"  
"none of your concern"  
sighing iruka tried again with another question.  
"how long have you been anbu?"  
"classified"  
snorting iruka tried again  
"do you at least like what you do?"  
the anbu considered him for a moment before replying.  
"we protect our village and our hokage above all else"  
nodding his head iruka tried to get him to clarify.  
"yes, but all shinobi do that, do you enjoy being anbu"  
this time it was the female of the group who questioned his motives.  
"why do you ask?"  
twisting his head around to stare at the woman who had played a part directly in his torture, iruka said nonchalantly.   
"im bored and apparently not allowed to sleep, i might as well fill the time with something and i've already counted the cracks on the ceiling twelve times"  
silence reigned again and iruka knew they weren’t going to start the conversation so he just kept at it.  
"did the hokage decide i was a threat or the council?"  
"classified"  
he turned to the three anbu who had yet to speak with him.  
"you always so quiet?"  
the man with the wolverine mask regarded him coolly before responding.  
"there is nothing to say"  
"ah, so you just don’t give a crap"  
the man tilted his head to the side, analyzing the chunin who had the guts to talk back to him.  
"you should watch what you say"  
iruka shrugged. before replying hotly.  
"pretty sure im in the worst place i could be"  
"you could be dead"  
the wolverine masked man replied. iruka just smiled at the man before responding calmly.  
"yes i could be, but then we wouldn’t have this lovely chance to bond"  
the tiger masked anbu couldn’t hold back a laugh, she quickly straightened herself. iruka smiled at the tiger masked figure before looking straight ahead.  
"my students are always asking about you guys, what your like, what you do for the village, do you really have a cool tattoo. its never ending really."  
"and what do you tell them?"  
came the first inclination to the anbu’s own curiosity. iruka smiled before telling the group.  
"the truth, that just like any other shinobi you do your duty to the hokage and the village above all else and are willing to give your lives in order to protect them and everyone in the village. that your the elite of the elite and the strongest of the village, but that doesn’t always mean physical strength and yes you have cool tattoos"  
the nin smiled behind their masks, the teacher was truly something. even in his darkest hour, he was finding something to be happy about.  
"they're going to be confused-when i don’t return"  
iruka muttered in a distant tone.  
"a new teacher will be found"  
came the cold response, iruka nodded sadly, it was not lost on the anbu how the man looked back down to the floor and his bound legs as he was prone to doing when upset.  
"why have you never had children of your own? simply because your gay?"  
iruka was surprised by the sudden question, for more than one reason of course. one was the fact that the anbu were starting to speak up to him and two because of the nature of the question. iruka smiled, turning to the wolf anbu who had just spoken fort he first time he answered the masked man.  
"never really thought it to be an option honestly i work so much that i just figured i didn’t have any time for one of my own, i wouldn’t want to be so distant from my own child. besides mizuki didn’t want kids...besides that i really do look at the kids i teach as my own. im practically a third parent to most of them, so its not so hard to have the connection without having to do all the dirty work. i’d rather teach them how to throw kunai any day to having to change diapers."  
the anbu were surprised the chunin had brought up his abusers name, but the fact that the man was apparently joking with them was also so foreign given the circumstances. iruka turned the tables on them though and asked.  
"do you have families-with children i mean?"  
"we cant tell you that"  
iruka looked ahead at the door as he asked.  
"don’t they worry about you, i'd be terrified of someone not coming home"  
"why did you become a shinobi if you didn’t want to worry?"  
iruka gave a faint smile as he stared at the door before answering honestly.  
"my parents were shinobi, i was brought up that way i guess, i never thought about being a civilian, i didn’t like the idea of being helpless"  
"in wave or konoha?"  
the sudden redirection wasn’t lost on iruka, but he ignored it in favor of just having something to do.  
"hmm my parents? in wave they retired before we moved here. they wanted to have time to take care of me, once we relocated to konoha they never took missions, but when the nine tails attacked they joined the fight like every other able bodied shinobi"  
for a while nothing was said, then as if sensing now would be the worst possible time the door opened revealing ibiki with a small black satchel. the man ignored them all in favor of coming in and setting his satchel down on the chair he had previously occupied, he turned towards the chunin.  
"and how are we feeling today?"  
unable to restrain himself iruka smiled and answered.  
"like a bunch of friggin daisies, you?"  
the anbu snickered until ibiki glared at them. opening the small satchel he removed something that iruka had heard about but never experienced himself. it was a med nin tool used in specialized surgeries, it could cut chakra lines in the body, or fuse them together. looking to ibiki he asked.  
"do the med nins know your stealing their tools?"  
"this ones mine"  
came the confident tone of the torture expert, the mans smile caused iruka to feel a shiver of fear go up his spine. approaching the chunin, ibiki knelt before the chunin before explaining.  
"this is whats gonna happen, im gonna ask a question and your going to answer me, if i think your being a little shit or lying to me im gonna use this to make you tell me the truth understood."  
trying not to show his fear iruka asked.  
"did the hokage approve this method of interrogation?"  
ibiki just smiled, sitting back on his heels he started the first line of questioning instead of answering the man’s question.  
" lets start with something easy alright- how many comrades have you killed?"  
iruka was puzzled, he had killed his teammate at his own request, but other than that he couldn’t recall being responsible for any other shinobi's death that was a comrade.  
"just the one"  
ibiki frowned, causing iruka's eyes to widen as the chakra scalpel touched his ankle. crying out in pain he felt his chakra pathways buckle under the knifes ability, before something snapped. tears poured down the chunin’s face, iruka had never felt anything like it before.  
"how many?"  
came the hard voice of ibiki. trying to catch his breath iruka called out urgently.  
"just the one"  
ibiki sighed before going to his other ankle. iruka turned his face away waiting for the pain.  
"this is going to be a very long session if you don’t start telling me the truth iruka"  
his anger flaring at the implication of him lying, iruka turned back around to the interrogations officer. and practically spat at the man.  
"i am telling the truth"  
ibiki shrugged before placing the chakra blade onto the undamaged ankle. iruka couldn’t hold back a scream as the knife sliced through his pathway. on the outside he appeared fine, but on the inside his pathways were being cut one by one, cauterized as they went so as to not allow the man to suffer chakra depletion and die. iruka panted as he tried to focus on something other than the pain. but there was nothing else to focus on. it was pain and more pain...and then questions, one after another in the grating voice of the torture expert who seemed unwavering in his ability to cause pain without remorse.  
"now iruka, why don’t you tell me about your time under orochimaru's care"  
"what do you want to know"  
ibiki’s face lightened up at that response. the man asking quite jovially.  
"how long were you under his care?"  
"until he defected, i think it was summer"  
"so essentially since you were just out of the academy until he defected."  
iruka nodded his head.  
"yes"  
"good ok, what all did he teach you? besides the summons"  
iruka looked into the steel eyes of his torturer.  
"he taught me how to survive as a shinobi"  
iruka didn’t dare talk about what all he’d learned from the sanin, it would only make his situation worse. even the threat of torture wasn’t worth bringing up that.  
"and what did that entail"  
looking away from the man he spoke softly.  
"anything he deemed useful in battle, genjitsu, ninjitsu and taijistu."  
"what else did he teach you? forbidden techniques?"  
iruka froze in his seat. just how much information did they have on him, he thought most of this information was lost to konoha since orochimaru fled and the third had died.  
"iruka"  
nodding his head, iruka spoke up again though in a far more timid manner.  
"we-me and my teammates didn’t know that they were forbidden, we were just kids"  
ibiki nodded his head in some faux way to show he understood what the chunin was trying to get a crossed.  
"alright, and after you learned of their reputation?"  
iruka shook his head as he devoutly said.  
"i never used them"  
"never?"  
came the curious tinged voice of the man in front of him. iruka sighed, he knew the man was getting short with him for a reason. ibiki was doubting what he was saying.   
" now iruka, you expect me to believe that in all your time as a shinobi you didn’t perform a single one of those jutsu's not even in training?"  
the knife was closer now, hovering over his knee, just waiting for a wrong answer to grant ibiki a reason to slice into the mans leg again.  
"i trained, but that is all"  
" so you never used them while on a mission?"  
iruka shook his head, gasping in a lungful of air only to cough as the blade sliced into his knee. the pain oh god how it hurt. soon enough the blade was removed and iruka was left to gather his thoughts as he struggled to intake air.  
"when did you use them"  
iruka just shook his head, biting his lip in pain. he heard ibiki sigh and watched through is bangs as the blade was brought over to his other knee. he winced as it got closer. it did not go unnoticed.  
"just tell me the truth iruka and all this can end"  
"i am-aaaaargh"  
iruka didn’t even get to finish his statement before the blade sunk into his other knee. crying out tears pouring down his cheeks he began to hyperventilate at the pain.  
"just breathe iruka"  
came the dry voice, iruka tried, but it was like there was a weight on his lungs and he just couldn’t lift it off, wheezing the chunin began to see dark splotches encroach on his vision. ibiki frowned as he watched the man’s chest spasm in its attempts to draw in oxygen. scowling at the man who was about to lose consciousness ibiki slapped the chunin. forcing him to take a deep breath in shock.  
"there we go, nice even breathes."  
smiling ibiki waited and watched carefully as the chunin seemed to regulate his breathing a little better than before. coughing a little iruka let his head hang where ibiki had struck it. he saw the blade again and closed his eyes, oh god the pain it could inflict. men nin's only used the tool when people were under anethesia and there was a good reason for that, it was down right torture if you were awake.  
"now,when did you last use one of these techniques?"  
it took a while for iruka’s mind to clear enough to realize he was being asked something, but when he finally did recognize that a question had been asked he answered. iruka mumbled at first, but when he saw the blade come closer he cried out.  
"its been years"  
"how many years?"  
"five, ten i don’t know"  
his voice pleading for his abuser to understand him, but ibiki just shook his head and said.  
"come now iruka, you don’t remember when you last summoned a giant snake like manda, or buried someone alive in your entombment jutsu?"  
iruka frowned, he'd never used the jutsu on an actual person. but apparently they believed he had. he'd only managed to summon manda once while he was under orochimaru, he'd never tried after the snake sanin had fled for fear that the man would have given the snake instructions to attack him since he refused to join the insane man.  
"how many people iruka?"  
he was confused for a moment before he dared to ask.  
"have died?"  
ibiki nodded his head, a tight smile to his face.  
"yes, because of you"  
"my teammate was the first-i've lost a couple other teammates throughout missions but none were my fault"  
the blade came closer, and iruka couldn’t hold back a sob. it was poised to hit the mans hip, one of the main chakra points on the body before the vital organs.  
"iruka"  
came the tight warning, ibiki was done playing it seemed. iruka shook his head and begged through the tone of his voice as he said.  
"i never killed a comrade after-"  
he cried out in pain as his chakra pathway was brutally severed by the blade, he was left heaving air into his lungs as his body buckled in the chair trying to process the pain.   
"do you know where orochimaru is?"  
iruka hadn’t even gathered himself from the pain of the last attack before ibiki was asking yet another question. unable to answer right away he shook his head. ibiki was scowling and that was what prompted iruka to find his breath before his body was willing to allow it. finally responding verbally to the irritated man.  
"no-no one knows where he's hiding"  
the blade crept closer, but didn’t cut into him just yet. instead ibiki tried another tactic.  
"would you tell us if you knew?"  
"of course"  
the blade crept closer again causing the chunin to flinch. he wanted away from that thing. that bringer of pain.  
"and when orochimaru attacked, where were you?"  
confused as to the sudden change of topic, iruka thought a moment before replying.  
"i was in the stands watching the fights when the attack happened. i i got all the civilians to one of the caves as soon as possible"  
nodding his head, ibiki withdrew the knife a bit. before questioning.  
"so you had no contact with orochimaru or his men?"  
iruka winced, he'd encountered one of them and orochimaru had left him a message. the scowl that flashed a crossed ibiki’s face was all the warning iruka needed. with little hesitation he admitted.   
"one-he pinned me down and gave me a message from... him"  
intrigued ibiki brought the knife closer to the school teacher.  
"and what was that message?"  
"orochimaru wanted to let me know that he was disappointed in me-that i was wasting my talent here"  
ibiki tilted his head a bit at that before asking.  
"and what did you say in return?"  
"i didn’t say anything, before i could try and fight the nin off he was gone"  
shaking his head, ibiki brought the blade down to the other side of the mans hip causing him to release a very loud scream. jerking in the chair iruka couldn’t believe this was happening to him, he'd never experienced pain quite like this, a deep seated internal pain that was on a completely different level than the physical pain of raw injuries.  
"what did you say?"  
ibiki asked curtly.  
"nothing"  
the blade was raised to the side of his ribs, iruka twisted in the chair trying to get away from the tool. it was no use, ibiki had complete control over the situation.  
" what did you say iruka"  
breathlessly, iruka answered the angered man again.  
"nothing i said nothing"  
the scream that came from the chunin’s throat was so raw and desperate that even the anbu tensed at hearing the man’s pain.

*********************************

iruka remembered screaming, but then everything turned black. when he was finally able to open his eyes again, he was staring down at the floor. groaning, he didn’t try to move. his entire body hurt, it felt like he'd broken all the bones where the blade had touched.  
"your awake, good ibiki's been waiting for you"  
the hawk anbu left the room to retrieve ibiki, leaving iruka in the care of his teammates. struggling to lift his head, iruka gave up on that motion and settled for tilting it to the side to be able to see the anbu around him.  
"h-how long"  
he rasped out.  
"a couple hours"  
came the calm response. iruka let his head drop back down to his chest, he didn’t have the strength to fight holding it up. the door came open and two sets of footsteps came in. the anbu returned to his post while ibiki came to stand in front of him. staring at the mans shoes iruka couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to die here today. his hair was grasped and his head pulled back, he didn’t bother to wince, it didn’t hurt, at least not compared to the rest of him.  
"good your awake, im going to ask you one last time, what did you say to the messenger that orochimaru sent to you during the attack?"  
iruka lazily let his eyes roll around, never really focusing on anything. frustrated ibiki shoved his head down releasing iruka’s hair. the chunin could do nothing, all he could feel was pain. his entire body hurt, but his pathways, his pathways were sliced apart like some dissected frog.   
"very well, if you refuse to talk, i'll find another means to get my answers"  
the man stormed out of the room leaving iruka once again alone with the anbu watching him. he couldn’t even bring himself to cry, he hurt too much for that. so instead he sat there in silence, questioning why this was happening to him. ibiki was gone for some time, leaving iruka to idly wonder what the interrogations officer was going to do next. ibiki returned through the door a small cart with him, on it some vials of a variety of substances and a syringe along with a couple other supplies. iruka just watched through his fringe as ibiki prepared the needle, filling it with the first substance. walking over to the chunin ibiki threw iruka’s head back, the chunin lay lax staring at him in a tired fashion after being manhandled. ibiki showed the needle to the man tied to the chair.  
"do you know what this is?"  
"no"  
iruka hoarsely replied.  
"this is a stimulant that causes your chakra to surge"  
ibiki left what would happen unsaid, iruka already knew what it meant, his chakra was going to race through his pathways and when it got to the broken parts ibiki had cut-iruka shuddered at the thought of what would happen then.  
"do you have anything to say?"  
the man asked haughtily. iruka glanced up into the man’s eyes tiredly before he weakly shook his head and uttered a defeated.  
"no"  
"very well"  
iruka winced as the needle was suddenly jammed into the side of his neck, the cold liquid entering his bloodstream. the effect was instantaneous. he felt his chakra react to the stimulant in his system and begin to surge around his body. coming to the first barrier in its circuit around the mans body in his ribs, iruka screamed as the chakra rebelled at being held back from its normal flow.  
"that feeling your experiencing right now, its called flow back. with your chakra disrupted by the cuts i've made your going to experience quite a lot of it. the only thing that will make it stop is when your chakra pathways are put back into order. with them not being healed, the chakra will just continue to batter against the endings and well you get the picture don’t you iruka? of course the drug wont last long. just an hour or two"  
iruka sobbed, he was going to have to endure a couple hours of this pain, another arch of pain struck and he cried out, his voice breaking as he tried in vain to express the pain in his body. his chakra continued to surge throughout his body, rebelling at each of the points that ibiki had cut. trying to reconnect with its normal circuit in vain.   
ibiki stood there along side his anbu and watched the man thrash in the chair, the chunin hadn’t broken yet, but he had no doubt that it wouldn’t be long before he did and then he would get all the answers he needed. the anbu winced at the shrill screaming the man was able to produce as he thrashed about. it continued this way for over an hour and half, iruka never quite being able to fall unconscious, being kept just on the precipice of consciousness, riding the waves of pain throughout his body. iruka didn’t even notice when the waves of pain began to ebb, he'd long since lost his voice from all the screaming and merely made small whimpers or squeaks as the tremors rocked his body. it wasn’t until someone started talking to him that he realized the initial waves of pain had gone and what remained was the result of the chakra surging for so long. a phantom pain left in the wake of the torture he’d endured.  
"iruka pay attention."  
ibiki watched as the hazel eyes rolled about in the mans skull never quite locking on with his, he knew the man was awake, but probably in too much pain to give a valid response.  
"iruka this is your last warning."  
hearing the buzzing of what must have been ibiki talking to him, iruka tried to find the man in his plane of view, but all he could see was blurry figures. his head was jerked to the side as he was suddenly slapped across the face. it did nothing for his ability to distinguish the people around him, but ibiki apparently thought it would work so he struck him again.  
"IRUKA!"  
jolting in his seat, the chunin moaned, finally clearing his head enough to see the blurry outline of what must be ibiki. he lazily nodded his head, which could have easily just been him rotating his head around as he had been doing for the last ten minutes, but ibiki saw the sliver of recognition.  
"good, now that that’s over why don’t you tell me some things hmm"  
iruka opened his mouth as if to talk but nothing came out, the chunin slowly closed his mouth. ibiki frowned at the chunin’s refusal to talk.  
"iruka don’t fight me on this, tell me what you know about orochimaru"  
gathering the last of his strength, iruka glared at ibiki, his most hate filled glare that he could muster before muttering to the man in a quiet whisper.  
"go to hell"  
ibiki frowned as he watched the man slip into unconsciousness. the chunin was proving to be difficult, looking to the anbu he stated matter of factly.  
"since he doesn’t seem to wish to cooperate with us any more, were going to plan b. understood"  
a chorus of 'hai' was heard by ibiki as he opened the door and yelled down the hallway.  
"get me a gurney"


	4. telling the truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> after trying his hardest to tell nothing, but the truth to clear his good name iruka finds that sometimes the truth is not enough. lucky for him ibiki has a way of making sure what the chunin says is in fact the truth. too bad for iruka that it doesn't react all that well with the chunin himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh yeah two chapters in one day...i was feeling generous and since you guys are AWESOME! i felt it was only fair that i post another chapter. things are really heating up, what else shall we learn about the academy sensei iruka? hope you enjoy this latest chapter and stay tuned for more.
> 
> keep on checking back as i'm sure i'll be posting at least one chapter a day if not more depending on how bored i am and whether or not the other stories im writing are being difficult.

returning to the real world was a slow process for the chunin. at first all he did was lay there, not even realizing that he was apparently lying on his back. instead he just lay breathing in the musty air of the dungeon he was being forced to live in. he guessed that they were underground because the air was cold. turning his head to the side he allowed a sigh to escape his lips, never bothering to fight to open his eyes. it was nice to be able to have them closed and the new change in position at least partially reduced some of his discomfort from being stuck in the chair for so long.  
"iruka"  
"hmm"  
he managed to make a non committal sound to respond to the anbu, whichever one was talking to him.  
"open your eyes"  
upon hearing the order, iruka allowed himself a moment to bask in the quiet. allowing a couple of tears to slip passed his eyelashes, iruka could only think about how they were going to force him to stay awake from now on until this hell ended. his only reprieve was when he slipped into darkness. iruka squinted at first when he finally obeyed the repeated command by the guard. not being able to make out any of the anbu, their shadows filling his vision , but not being able to clarify which ones he was seeing. his vision slowly returned to his control and he found that three of them were on one side of the table he lay on and another two were on the other side of him. ibiki was nowhere in sight. he relaxed minutely, besides watching him the anbu hadn’t really hurt him. sure the woman had used genjitsu against him and one of the men had punched him, but that was nothing compared to what ibiki had done thus far. all the pain he’d really endured had all been ibiki's doing. iruka laid there for a moment before muttering  
"what now"  
his voice was nothing but a whisper, his vocal cords strained from all the yelling and yet it was obvious they heard him. a moment passed before one of the anbu responded to him.  
"now you wait"  
"for ibiki?"  
the anbu nodded, sighing iruka allowed his head to come back to the center of the room,staring at the ceiling again, he didn’t bother to count. unable to stop himself, he quietly asked a loud.  
"am i going to die here?"  
the anbu didn’t respond at first, glancing to one another uncertainty. before the tiger masked female responded.  
"it depends on if you give ibiki the answers he wants"  
iruka gave a mirthless raspy laugh at that before stating in a cold tone.  
"so i should just lie then"  
"lieing will not do you any good"  
one of the men rebuked him. iruka snorted before bitterly stating back to the anbu.  
"neither does telling the truth"  
the anbu had no response for this, instead having a silent conversation with themselves above the chunin. it was only another hour of silence before ibiki rejoined the group.  
"i was beginning to wonder if you were going to wake up"  
"sorry to keep you waiting"  
came the snide come back from the chunin. ibiki raised an eyebrow at the mans bitter tone. not bothering to comment ibiki reached for something too far out of iruka’s point of view. when he saw what ibiki held, iruka didn’t even flinch as it was revealed which prompted ibiki to ask.  
"you know what this is?"  
"truth serum-probably high grade since its you who’s holding it."  
ibiki nodded, leaning over to get at the mans neck, iruka couldn’t help but warn the man despite it being a waste of time, he was sure.  
"you really shouldn’t give me that"  
pulling back ibiki frowned at the man.  
"and why is that? are you allergic to it?"  
"no-i just don’t respond well to it"  
ibiki shrugged his shoulders before leaning over and injecting the blue liquid into the mans body. iruka only flinched as the plunger was depressed allowing the vile contents to enter his bloodstream.   
"that will take a minute or so to work, so just relax and let the drug do its work, don’t bother to fight it. even my anbu cant completely override its effects. i'll leave you in their capable hands then."  
iruka snorted before asking sarcastically.  
"what you getting tired of me"  
ibiki glanced down to the man, before replying.  
"i have better things to do than listen to you ramble on, once the drug is in full effect i'll start questioning you"  
with that ibiki left him to lay on the cold table, surrounded by anbu guards who were prepared to stop him if he struggled on the bed. he didn’t bother to do such a thing, he was restrained down to it and it would just be a waste of what little energy he did have. instead iruka chose to relax against the cold table and ponder over his current situation. he couldn’t help but smile a little and turn to the anbu nearest to him.  
"he really shouldn’t have done that"  
the anbu tilted their head at him, having gotten their attention. iruka couldn’t help but snicker at the anbu. the drug already beginning to make him feel loopy.  
"i-i told him, don’t react well"  
the anbu crossed their arms, regarding the trapped chunin coolly. looking back to the ceiling, iruka used the last of his willpower to ask one final question before he succumbed to the drugs complete effects.  
"what'll you do with my body?"  
the anbu looked to one another in a startled fashion, before stating.  
"your not dead yet"  
iruka shrugged before closing his eyes.  
"feel that way"  
the anbu didn’t respond, so they fell back into silence. iruka didn’t bother to strike up any more conversation with the anbu, especially since he could feel the drug starting to make him lose his inhibitions. he knew he was going to start rambling anytime now. he wasn’t wrong, before he knew what he was doing he started talking nonsense.  
" did the west gate fall? i thought i saw it fall"  
before the anbu could answer his question he was moving onto another subject.  
"my apartment was trashed from the attack, i wonder who will clean it up when im gone-do they have cleaning crews for after you guys get rid of some one or does that just fall to some genin team? seems to high profile for that-pft do you have to clean out my house"  
the anbu frowned at the chunin's train of thought.  
"mah-what kind of story will you come up with? will you say i was a traitor or will you say i died in the attack-no one would know the difference i suppose, but it would easier to tell the kids i died in the attack then try and explain what a traitor is-they don’t compartmentalize those things very well"  
sighing the anbu tried to get comfortable as the chunin went on and on. his train of thoughts were only getting darker and darker which revealed quite a lot to the anbu.  
"i would have liked to see the memorial stone one last time-did it get damaged?"  
there was a long pause, when no one answered the chunin, iruka asked again. the anbu then spoke up when the man didn’t divert to another topic.  
"it was undamaged"  
"hmm oh that’s good, i know so many people who go there to pray, it would be sad if it had to be replaced- so many names"  
looking over to the tiger anbu who had genjitsu'd him he asked quite seriously.  
"when your gonna kill someone, can you make them see just about anything? like a happy memory so they don’t know whats happening to them"  
the tiger anbu seemed a little uncomfortable with the question but answered the now distraught chunin.  
"i suppose so"  
"i'd like that-get to see my kids again, even if it was a lie"  
the anbu looked to one another, the man seemed to be coming to peace with a fate that hadn’t been judged on yet. the door suddenly opened to reveal ibiki, his arms crossed the interrogations specialist regarded those in the room.  
"he ready?"  
the anbu nodded. approaching the chunin, ibiki pulled out some paper and a pen, he was going to document everything that happened of consequence.  
"alright why don’t we start with something easy. whats your name?"  
"umino iruka"  
"good, whats your rank?"  
"chunin"  
"alright whats your position?"  
"currently im laying down on a very cold table"  
sighing, ibiki rephrased the question.  
"not your present position, what is your position in life?"  
"pft i'd do either"  
confused ibiki had the teacher clarify.  
"clarify what you mean"  
"i prefer to be on bottom, but i'd top for the right-"  
"silence"  
ibiki couldn’t hold back a smirk as the man was willing to reveal his sexual predisposition. the anbu shifted in the room uncomfortably.  
"whats your job title"  
"school teacher at konoha academy"  
"alright now that we have those questions out of the way, why don’t you tell me what it would take for you to betray konoha"  
ibiki dived right into the meat of things, wanting to know what the mans price was. the eyes of the chunin had glazed over as the drug had taken full effect and he was no longer aware of what was going on around him. iruka just felt a warm sensation in his stomach and a feeling that he didn’t need to hold back, he could just let everything out and everything would be ok.  
"the kids"  
"excuse me?"  
"i'd do anything to protect the kids"  
"so if someone threatened their life in exchange for your services you would do so"  
iruka nodded his head. ibiki wrote down the information before continuing on.  
"why didn’t you testify against mizuki?"  
"i loved him"  
"he abused you-why would you not fight back?"  
"i loved him"  
frowning, ibiki tried a different way of phrasing things.  
"did you like the abuse?"  
shaking his head iruka explained a little more.  
"i hated the pain-it always hurt to be with him, even if he wasn’t hitting me or raping me."  
the anbu tensed as the man spoke so carefree about his own abuse.  
"then why stay?"  
"i couldn’t let someone else go through that pain"  
raising a brow ibiki questioned.  
"so you stayed with your abuser so he wouldn’t abuse someone else?"  
"yes"  
writing down the information, ibiki asked another question.  
"when the third hokage asked you to testify against mizuki, why did you say no?"  
"it was all my fault"  
frowning ibiki asked quickly.  
"explain"  
" i always made him mad-i deserved it"  
frown deepening, ibiki pressed further.  
"so you believe that the abuse was justified?"  
"yes"  
"but just in case it wasn’t you stayed with him to protect a nameless person who would have been his next target"  
"yes"  
writing down in his book, ibiki didn’t like the way the questioning was going. instead of incriminating the chunin it was making the man seem like a victim. choosing to change the subject, ibiki asked.  
"who are you loyal to?"  
"konoha"  
"why?"  
"its my home"  
it was easy enough to throw a wrench in the man’s declaration by stating factually.   
"your from wave"  
iruka shook his head  
"no, im from konoha"  
writing down the mans response, ibiki continued to ask more questions of the drugged man.  
"when mizuki stole the scroll and attacked you and the kyuubi vessel, you protected the child even though it contained the beast that killed your family. why?"  
"naruto-i he was just a child"  
still ibiki dug deeper.  
"and your visitation with mizuki?"  
"i tried to get him help"  
nodding his head ibiki, wrote some more in the book. it was one of the anbu who spoke next  
"and did he respond to your help?"  
ibiki glanced up to see the chunin’s reaction, other then a puzzled look on his face from all their questions he seemed to be doing just fine.  
"no-he hates me"  
"how do you feel about him"  
the anbu asked suddenly, refusing to end the questioning and allow ibiki to take back over. ibiki ran with it, listening in on the conversation.  
"i miss him"  
the startling revelation had ibiki staring at the chunin in confusion.  
"why?"  
"he's my friend"  
came the calm response. frowning ibiki reclined in a chair opposite from the chunin and watched as his anbu tried to reason with the confused chunin who was at the moment contradicting himself right and left.  
"he abused you, attacked you and a student, why do you still consider him a friend"  
"i don’t want to lose him too...i don’t know what to think, he was my friend, but he betrayed the village. now i have nobody"  
ibiki scribbled into his notebook, giving the chunin a second to collect his thoughts before he took back over the investigation when the anbu’s questioning got them nowhere.   
"you trained with orochimaru, what did he teach you?"  
"everything"  
"clarify"  
"i can do anything from , summon giant snakes, poison people, hurt them beyond recognition without leaving a trace i was there. i was trained to kill in a variety of ways so as to be the most useful. to be like sensei”  
"and are you?"  
"no"  
iruka shook his head.  
"why?”  
"i don’t want to be like him"  
ibiki scowled at the prostrate man before him and said in a sure voice.  
"you idealized your sensei, why do you want to be different from him"  
"he was so kind to me..at first-i miss that, but he's hurt so many"  
seeing an opening, ibiki asked.  
"and this kindness he showed you would not sway you to join him?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"i could never join him- i disappoint him"  
raising a brow ibiki smiled, so they were getting to the heart of the matter.  
"and would you try to redeem yourself in your sensei's eyes if he gave you the chance"  
"i don’t know"  
smiling, ibiki wrote down the chunin's response before continuing.  
"would you kill for him?"  
"no"  
"would you kill the hokage for him?"  
"no"  
"would you kill the villagers for him?"  
"no"  
"who would you be willing to kill?"  
"myself"  
eyes widened all around the chunin, ibiki's frown returned.  
"why would you do that?"  
"to protect people from me"  
sighing, ibiki changed the subject at hand. he wasn’t getting the answers he had been hoping for.  
"if given the chance to flee this place, would you escape"  
"i never want to come back"  
came the bland reply, just like all the answers before it, but this particular answer made them all smirk. no one wanted to come down there, least of all to return to this place if they were lucky enough to get out in the first place.  
"would you do anything to get out of here"  
ibiki asked curiously. it wouldn’t be so far fetched for the chunin to break so completely that he would attempt an escape.  
"no"  
"why not"  
"the hokage wanted me here-so i will stay"  
ibiki wrote down the mans response, thinking a moment he allowed the anbu to question the man before him as they saw fit.  
"you say your alone, what about your students?"  
"they leave me"  
"you have comrades do you not"  
"they don’t know me"  
"explain"  
"no one knows about my past, they don’t know the real me, what i’m capable of."  
"so you hide from them"  
"yes"  
the anbu glanced around to each other, this man was more than he seemed to be, his apparent devotion to konoha was unquestionable, but just to be sure the wolf anbu asked.  
"would you ever leave konoha?"  
"yes"  
surprised the wolf anbu questioned the chunin.  
"why?"  
"if they sent me away, i would go"  
before the wolf anbu could say anything more, ibiki cut in and asked.  
"and would you betray the secrets of konoha to another shinobi village?"  
"no"  
"why not?"  
"i'd be dead?"  
raising a brow to the chunin’s response, ibiki asked in a befuddled tone of voice.  
"what makes you say that?"  
"i'd kill myself"  
ibiki frowned at the chunin, something had been bothering him about this man and hearing what the man had just revealed sparked something. intrigued to know just how far the man had gone in his past, ibiki asked.  
"have you tried to kill yourself before?"  
"yes"  
the anbu shifted a bit upon hearing the man’s admission to such an action.  
"when was the last time you attempted such a thing?"  
ibiki asked for the sake of writing down the answer for the hokages report. she would want to know the stability of the man’s mind if he was to be released, though ibiki was doubting that being the case.  
" a couple days ago"  
the anbu tensed upon hearing the news of the man’s attempted suicide so casually. their eyes widening beneath their masks. ibiki immediately questioned.  
"why"  
"i didn’t want to live"  
such a basic answer to his question caused ibiki to ask something more in depth for the topic.  
"how did you attempt to do this?"  
"snake venom"  
frowning ibiki questioning grew darker.  
“how did you get a hold of snake venom?”  
the reply was so casual, though that was admittedly the drugs fault, either way iruka said.  
“i summoned one.”  
raising a brow to the chunin, ibiki stated.  
"so you use your summons"  
"yes"  
"so earlier you lied to me about using your summons"  
"yes"  
writing down the information, he questioned the man.  
"and why did you choose to use a snake?"  
"harder to save a person’s life if you don’t know where the venom came from, what snake, how big...to many variables."  
nodding his head to the intelligence in his attempt, ibiki asked casually.  
"how many times have you tried to kill yourself?"  
iruka shrugged, he couldn’t remember. and stated as such.  
"does anyone know of your suicidal tendencies"  
"yes"  
"who"  
"the third hokage"  
sighing, ibiki clarified.  
"he's dead"  
"yes"  
"does anyone living know of your tendencies?"  
"no"  
standing abruptly he approached the chunin, the haze in the mans eyes was starting to fade. their time was running out to get truthful answer, for this session at least.  
"do you want to kill me?"  
"no"  
"why not"  
"the hokage has ordered this"  
"and if the hokage ordered you to be tortured for the rest of your life?"  
"then i would be"  
"if she ordered your life, would you allow me to kill you?"  
"yes"  
writing something down in his notebook ibiki nodded to the anbu and left. he had no more questions for the man presently. he would try again tomorrow after he had seen to his other guests down the hall. being left alone with the man, the anbu took the time to try their own hand at questioning him while he was still under the drugs affects.   
"do you wish to die?"  
"yes"  
"then why not make sure of it?"  
" i deserve to die that way"  
"from snakes venom?"  
"yes"  
"why do you think that?"  
"im a snake"  
"how so"  
"im hiding in plain sight, i could easily kill numerous people if provoked and be gone before anyone would be the wiser."  
the anbu glanced from the chunin to one another. this man was turning out to be more of an enigma then they anticipated.  
"do you have anyone you would like to see dead?"  
"yes"  
"who"  
"my sensei"  
"why"  
"he doesn’t deserve to live"  
"because of what he's done in the past?"  
iruka nodded his head before stating.  
"that and he killed the third, i owe him too much"  
"the third?"  
the anbu asked for clarification.  
"yes"  
"and why is that?"  
"he took care of me, after my parents died, made sure i was looked after as much as he could from his position."  
the anbu glanced around to each other before one of them stated.  
"so is it only because you owe the third so much that you would see your sensei dead, or do you have your own reasons to want him dead?"  
"he took them from me"  
puzzled as to what the man could mean they asked him to clarify.  
"my teammates"  
"he killed them?"  
"he let them die"  
puzzled as to the man’s response, the anbu asked.  
"letting them die is different them killing them himself, how did he take them from you?"  
"they were scared of me"  
the anbu rested themselves against the cold stone walls, contemplating everything that the man had said during his interrogation. they had plenty of questions to ask the chunin, but slowly they watched as the man's eyes began to clear. the haziness of the drugs falling away to reveal actual awareness. it was a few moments after the man’s eyes had cleared that iruka asked in a defeated tone.  
"did you get what you wanted?"  
he couldn’t remember what he had told them, a side effect of the drug, but he knew he must have spilled his guts to them just as the drug intended him to do.  
"some"  
the lackluster answer did nothing for his mood, but iruka was focusing on something a bit more important than being angry for his continued torture. iruka tried to breath threw his nose, but it wasn’t working. noticing that the man was having some difficulty they asked what was wrong. before iruka could respond he turned his head to the side and vomited, the anbu jumped into action to prevent the man from choking on his own vomit, they cut the cords and turned him on his side as he heaved. iruka heaved a few times, spitting bile and saliva onto the floor in thick rivulets as his body spasmed beyond his control. once iruka appeared done they allowed the man to lay back onto the table, the anbu wanted to make sure he was truly done throwing up before they re-secured his hands.  
"does that always happen to you?"  
came the slightly nervous question from one of the anbu, iruka would have smiled or laughed at them for feeling concern on his behalf after everything else that had happened, but chose to simply answer the question.  
"i don’t react well to drugs"  
the anbu nodded to the man’s bland reply, iruka took the moment to wipe his mouth with his free hand, before placing it on his stomach. for whatever reason they weren’t immediately tieing him back up and he was going to relish the ability to be even the slightest bit more comfortable.  
"how do you react to snake venom?"  
iruka had closed his eyes a while ago and for that he was thankful, at least this way none of them would see the pain in his eyes. he'd told them about one of his darkest secrets, something that no one knew about, it seemed fitting almost that they should learn something more damaging than his abuse by mizuki. looking to the side as he opened his eyes he found an anbu approaching him, the anbu went to help him turn to his side if he was about to be sick once more, but iruka held a hand up saying he was fine.  
"depends on what kind"  
he finally answered the man’s question.  
"what kind have you used?"  
came the counter question. iruka shrugged, not bothering to tell them that he'd tried just about every combination he'd come up with so far.  
"did orochimaru make you immune to the venom?"  
iruka was silent a moment, gauging what all he should say before he sighed and said.  
"he tried"  
"why?"  
iruka snorted before telling them what his sensei had once told him.  
"he said it was to get rid of my weakness"  
"so he poisoned you when you were a genin?"  
iruka tilted his head to look over at the wolverine masked anbu, the man hadn’t spoken much so it was a change of pace to have the silent man ask something. smirking iruka said.  
"yeah-he could never get rid of my ability to hurl after drugs though. that irked him to no end."  
the anbu smiled behind their masks. the man seemed to be more willing to talk to them now for whatever reason and they were going to take it. if they got more information out of the man this way then all the better, it would mean less torture for the chunin and hopefully an end to this whole thing if the right questions were asked.  
"what did the third say about you trying to kill yourself?"  
iruka shrugged a bit before stating.  
"threatened me"  
"with what?"  
iruka waved his hand in the air in a manner indicative of someone trying to explain something as he said.  
"sanitarium-taking my position away, stuff like that. it never worked though so i think he kinda gave up and just began to roll with the punches"  
iruka settled his hand once more on his stomach, trying to help settle the rolling he felt inside it.  
"you realize that we now know you have lied to us in the past about your summons"  
iruka shrugged, not seeming to care about their opinion on the matter.  
"that doesn’t look good for you"  
the stoic anbu told him. iruka snorted before supplying.  
"nothing seems to lately"  
the anbu remained quiet for a time, before one of them walked to the door and called down the hallway for someone to come and clean up the vomit. the wolf anbu approached him.  
"are you done being sick?"  
"i think so?"  
reaching for his hand, iruka couldn’t help but pull back suddenly. but rather than continue to try and hold himself away from the anbu he relinquished his hand to the man once he realized that he wasn’t going to be struck. the anbu retied his hands to his side and moved back to the wall.  
"if you feel sick again, let us know"  
iruka nodded his head, he didn’t know why but he felt like he could talk to these anbu, that in the end at least someone would have listened to him, maybe not believed him, but at least listened. plus he got some sick pleasure of knowing that ibiki wouldn’t be the one to have retrieved whatever information they deemed valuable from him. smirking to himself, iruka shook his head before telling the anbu.  
"you should see me after drinking sake"  
"that good?"  
iruka could hear some mirth in the man’s voice, iruka chuckled before nodding his head.  
"oh yeah"  
he smiled faintly and then winced as his leg tremmored sending a shock wave of pain up his body. taking a deep breath he let it out slowly before continuing to talk to the anbu as if nothing had happened. the anbu ignored the man’s reaction to his bodies painful response to his torture when the man didn’t say anything about it.  
"the third was the first person to give me sake, it was to celebrate me becoming a teacher. i must have thrown up all over him, but he didn’t seem to mind, just escorted me to the med nins and shook his head at me"  
the smile returned to his face as he thought about the third hokage. he missed him so very much.the anbu took in the mans subtle smile, for whatever reason he didn’t seem to want to try and make their lives difficult, he was simply going with the flow of things, even if it meant more torture for himself from ibiki. whatever line in the sand the man had drawn for himself, they weren’t apparently a part of it.  
" i should warn you, i get a little fucked up after too much truth serum-"  
"we noticed"  
came the dry response from the wolverine anbu.   
"ah, i see-"  
"when did you first encounter truth serum?"  
iruka thought about it a moment before stating.  
"my sensei drugged me to see how much i could take."  
the anbu waited, but that seemed to be all the shinobi was willing to explain without a direct question.  
"what happened?"  
"i was sick for a week, told him everything i've ever thought i think. he was quite amused by it i guess"  
"why do you still refer to him as sensei?"  
" i don’t know what else to call him"  
the anbu were surprised by the simple answer, but it seemed to fit with the new identity they were coming to associate with the chunin.


	5. seeing through masks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> getting cozy in the interrogations unit iruka spends his time divided between being forced to answer questions and asking questions himself of the anbu guard. all are surprised when after being dosed once more with truth serum that the chunin makes an alarming discovery. the question now is will having discovered this secret, will iruka be allowed to live?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so another day another chapter. having so much fun with this and you guys are awesome. i'm sure i'll post another chapter by the end of the day...im just like you i cant wait. lol. things really get interesting in this chapter and i hope you all like it. let me know what you think.

it was only a little while later that ibiki came in and relieved the anbu for a couple of hours. he never spoke to iruka and for that the man was grateful, the last thing he wanted was to talk to the man who had been torturing him for the last couple days. once the anbu returned ibiki spoke to everyone.  
"based on your reactions to the truth serum, we will continue to use it-there is a minimal risk to your safety."  
with that he left, iruka just huffed out a laugh, he was growing bitter towards the man. he knew ibiki was just doing his job just like the anbu were, but he didn’t have to seem to enjoy it quite so much.   
"how long?"  
"what?"  
"how long have i been here?"  
"does it matter?"  
came the speculative question. iruka shook his head before admitting.   
"no not really, was just curious."  
"four days"  
iruka nodded, closing his eyes for a moment he let himself reflect on everything that had happened thus far. the torture, the questions, the pain, the embarrassment. he jumped a little when a hand touched his shoulder, his eyes opening in a flash to look up at the mask of one of the anbu.  
"stay awake"  
the warning wasn’t harsh like iruka would have expected it to be, instead it was said in a firm voice, but somehow iruka knew the anbu was asking him to not force the anbu to hurt him. giving a waning smile, iruka told the man.  
"i wasn’t trying to sleep, i was just thinking"  
the anbu didn’t reply, he let his hand drop from the chunin’s shoulder and simply returned to their previous part of the wall. iruka turned his head as far as it could go, taking a moment to observe the anbu. he wondered what they did besides being anbu, were they jounin? did they run one of the infrastructures of konoha. somehow he just couldn’t picture them being anything but the trained assassins they were. the thought of them being genin teachers for the next generation, made him laugh a little. when he saw the anbu’s heads tilt in curiosity to his random laughter, he explained.  
"sorry, minds a little fuzzy, just couldn’t help but wonder what you guys do when your not anbu-and i know its classified. i just cant fathom you guys being well normal shinobi-i cant see you leading a genin team or turning in regular mission reports"  
the anbu glanced to one another, what the teacher said actually hurt more than they would ever show. sighing iruka tugged at his arm only to remember that it was tied down again, making a humph kinda a noise he squinted his eyes. the anbu couldn’t help but chuckle and ask what he was doing.  
"my nose itches-my scar. it always does when im stressed"  
one of the anbu came over and lightly scratched the chunins nose, iruka relaxed not wanting to let their clawed finger scratch them by accident. once the anbu retook their place he thanked them.  
"do you have anywhere else that itches?"  
came the amused question from an anbu,chuckling he shook his head.  
"no, its always the one on my face though, for a while the one on my back itched like hell being so large and all,but that’s what you get for blocking a windmill shuriken with your body"  
"that had to hurt"  
"yeah, they said if it had gone over a couple more centimeters that i would have been paralyzed."  
"and you took such a hit because?"  
came the intrigued question from one of the larger men, the tone of voice implying he was stupid for doing so. rolling his eyes, iruka informed the man.  
"oh its was when i was protecting naruto from mizuki."   
the anbu hn'd at his reply before allowing silence to reign over the small room. from down the hallway a scream resounded bouncing off of the hallway.  
"i see im not the only one who gets personal visits from ibiki"  
"some are more difficult than others"  
"am i difficult?"  
iruka asked curiously.   
"not for us, but i believe you have ibiki frustrated with your answers"  
"oh what did i say"  
the anbu shrugged, frowning iruka stated in a matter of fact tone of voice.  
"it cant be classified since im the one who said it"  
the bear anbu laughed from behind his mask, nodding to his teammate the wolverine clarified.  
"spoke a lot about mizuki and orochimaru, some about your students"  
"how is that frustrating?"  
"you didn’t give the answers he was looking for"  
"is that why i get to go through it again?"  
"most likely"  
frowning iruka tried to plead a case in his own defense, despite it not doing him any good.  
"but its not like i could lie under that stuff."  
"true, but he has more questions"  
sighing iruka didn’t bother to continue arguing with the anbu. instead he just let his gaze fall onto random parts of the room before he muttered.  
"you guys need to redecorate down here"  
"its not supposed to be homey iruka"  
it was the first time one of the anbu had used his name, but unlike when ibiki called his name, iruka didn’t find the sound of his voice offensive coming from the anbu. still the chunin laughed at the anbu’s expense. causing the anbu to cross his arms in irritation. looking to the different anbu around his room he noticed the subtle differences between them. there were four men and one women,only two had katanna's on their back the other had various smaller weapons in their pouches, who knew what kind of scrolls they carried to hide more weapons. each of their masks was of a different predator, there was the bear, the tiger, the wolf, the wolverine, and hawk. each animal had its own strengths which were bound to reflect on the shinobi behind their masks. seemingly out of nowhere iruka asked.  
"what happens if your mask breaks while your in combat?"  
"the other person dies"  
came the bland response, iruka snorted before stating.  
"well yeah, but wasn’t that going to happen anyways?"  
iruka could hear the smile in the man’s voice when he replied.  
"most likely"  
smiling at the reply, iruka couldn’t believe he was actually talking to a bunch of anbu as if they were sitting down to tea. he was laying there strapped to a friggin table waiting to be tortured for kami sake.   
"this has gotta be one of the weirdest moments of my life"  
"how so?"  
"im talking to a bunch of anbu while strapped down to a table awaiting kami knows what and were just talking like saying the weather looks good today"  
the anbu chuckled a little at he chunin's comment. at least this ward of their's was amusing. iruka moved onto his next question.  
"ano how many hokages have you guys served?"  
"classified"  
pouting a little iruka stuck out his tongue at the anbu. the anbu tilted his head to the side obviously amused.  
"everything is classified don’t you get bored with saying that?"  
"it has its moments"  
"pft i bet"  
iruka was about to ask another question when a shrill scream echoed once more down the hallway, this one even louder than before. shuddering iruka tried not to think about what was happening to that poor soul. finally he had a good question to ask. in a serious tone he questioned.  
"if ibiki decides im not a threat-what would happen?"  
"more than likely your memory would be erased"  
iruka winced, he had feared that was the answer. iruka was surprised when the wolf anbu asked.  
"wouldn’t it be better that way? to not remember all of this?"  
"no-not for me, i'd rather know what had happened and move on from it than always have that feeling of something not being right. would you want to have your memory erased?"  
the chunin countered. the wolf shook his head before replying.  
"i suppose not"  
iruka nodded a matter of factly, never seeing the smiles of the anbu behind their masks.  
"even if you erased my memory, i know i would question why i couldn’t teach anymore"  
"they'd come up with something"  
iruka sighed, he supposed it was best to just not ask about such things. he knew he wouldn’t like the answers. looking up towards the ceiling he muttered.  
"im gonna be so paranoid after this-"  
"why do you say that?"  
"i already have issues with tight spaces, but being tied down doesn’t really help me with that, if you erase my memory there is always the chance that certain events can trigger emotional responses. i’d hate to be sitting at a desk one day and then having a panic attack for some ungodly reason the next. seem’s rather cruel to me."  
the anbu nodded their understanding. never revealing that the teacher shouldn’t have revealed his weaknesses to them. it wasn’t long before ibiki came back in, carrying another vial of the dreaded truth serum.  
" i heard you didn’t fight my anbu, smart choice"  
iruka didn’t bother to reply to the man instead just tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow ibiki didn’t question the chunin's motives and instead injected the truth serum before taking a seat. iruka sighed, this again. this hazy feeling that slowly spreads throughout your body and then the warmth and then nothing.   
they patiently waited for the chunin to be fully under the effects of the serum, the anbu telling ibiki about everything the chunin had spoke to them about. after getting a full recounting of what they had spoken about ibiki began his second round of questioning. or tried to anyways, iruka suddenly burst out laughing. this caught everyone off guard. ibiki frowned at the man and examined his eyes, they were totally hazy, he should have been dead to the world, but instead he was staring intently at the ceiling.  
"this happened last time sir, it'll pass"  
nodding his head ibiki retook his seat and told the chunin to shut up. iruka didn’t seem to pay him any mind though and continued to laugh. finally the tiger anbu stepped forward and asked.  
"whats so funny iruka?"  
"you guys"  
"us?"  
she questioned in a confused tone of voice.  
"mmhmm pft im such an idiot"  
"and why are you an idiot?"  
"i never see things until its too late-pft i have a reverse sharingan"  
the man began to laugh at his own humor much to ibiki's ire and the anbu’s hidden amusement. standing up abruptly ibiki came over to the chunin once more and grabbed a finger harshly pulling it down until their was a sudden snap. the anbu winced behind their masks as iruka stopped laughing and looked at ibiki. the chunin blinked up at the irritated interrogations officer before calmly stating.  
"that hurt"  
"i bet it did, but it shut you up"  
seemingly ignoring the man’s statement, iruka asked.  
"don’t you want to know the secret?"  
ibiki frowned, it was obvious that the idiot had no idea what was going on around him at this point. about to leave to attend to his other guests until iruka had calmed some, he was rather surprised when iruka called out.  
"but ibiki i know the secret"  
frowning he twisted around and got right in the mans face, sneering at the chunin. he was about to snap another of the mans fingers when the chunin blurted out.  
"its a good secret, want to hear it"  
"enlighten me"  
he said, his voice dripping with venom. the chunin continued to chuckle under his breath as he nodded towards the tiger anbu. following his gaze ibiki waited for the man to explain.  
"i never thought that i'd figure something like this out, i mean im just a stupid chunin, but kami is it-"  
another loud snap was heard and iruka cried out in pain as another digit was broken.  
"say what you have to say or shut up, i wont tell you again"  
"your so mean"  
came the petulant response from the chunin. gritting his teeth, ibiki left the room in a huff, barking out orders to not be called back until the man was silent and ready to answer his questions. leaving the chunin with two broken fingers and room full of anbu who were trying to figure out what the man had been trying to say about their comrade. finally it was the tiger who spoke up, trying to gain the man’s attention and calm him at the same time. she played into his fantasy of knowing some big secret and said.  
"iruka, what secret do you think you know about me, we just met"  
iruka shook his head from side to side energetically. he pulled at his arm and then frowned when he figured out he couldn’t move it. it took him a minute to concentrate back onto what he was a bout to say before he got side tracked by his restraints. looking up into the woman’s mask, the chunin said with a dopey smile on his face.  
"i know you"  
dread instantly went up all the anbu's spines. it was forbidden for someone to know your identity. the penalty was severe for both sides if you were recognized or gave yourself away to another. those that knew of anbu’s code names were sworn to keep the knowledge a secret or had their memories altered.  
"iruka, what makes you think you know me?"  
"hmm oh that’s easy, i've seen you so much in the mission room turning things in, i just recognized your voice and the body language. it really just went poof into my head"  
the chunin continued to laugh, even though the anbu were trying to get him to focus to find out if he was just delusional from the drugs or if he in fact knew who he was speaking too. getting the chunin to focus for a moment, the tiger anbu asked him gently.  
"alright iruka, so you think you've seen someone with the same mannerisms as me?"  
iruka shook his head back and forth before stating confidently.  
"no the same-its you, you is you"  
he laughed, sighing it was hawk who blurted out for the first time.  
"his brains fried"  
the anbu glared at their friend. it wasn’t an impossible thing, some people overdosed on truth serum when given too much and lose themselves to the chaos of their mind. tiger tried again to get his attention. but it was iruka who finally ended the game by speaking softly to the tiger anbu so only she could hear it. leaning forward she heard what the laughing man had to say and bolted upright her eyes wide.  
"what?"  
her counter parts asked. she looked down to the laughing man and tried to rectify the situation before things got out of hand.  
"your wrong"  
"pft no im not"  
tiger looked to her teammates imploringly. she didn’t know what else to say to the man who was currently in a fit of laughter.  
"iruka-iruka, your confused from the drug"  
she tried desperatly to detour the man from believing what he’d just told her. iruka just shook his head back and forth repeating over and over 'you is you' the tiger anbu sighed before going back to her teammates who came together on one side of the man’s gurney and muttered what the man had said to her. their eyes widened and they turned to look at the still laughing chunin on the table.

*******

going to her teammates she pulled them far enough away from the table to be able to speak with them in private without the chunin being aware of what they were talking about.  
"he's right"  
they widened their eyes and looked at tiger  
"he knows who i am"  
"kuso, now we have to tell ibiki"  
they all knew what this possibly meant for the tiny chunin. he might not be getting out of this room alive. they had all been holding out hope that the man would be cleared of the accusations against him, but with something like this and the man’s apparent past. this wasn’t good.

*********

going to stand around the chunin the anbu tried to calm iruka down. the tiger anbu tried to tell the man that he was wrong about her identity, but iruka wouldn’t have any of it. finally he twisted to look at her and bluntly asked.  
"is hinata still so shy?"  
sighing the anbu knew they were screwed. it was hawk who muttered 'i'll go find ibiki' he left without another word leaving his teammates to try and calm the man down before their leader arrived with a vengeance.  
"iruka- you need to calm down, ibiki is going to have a lot of questions for you-"  
“ he doesn’t believe me"  
the tiger anbu sighed, there really was nothing they could do but hope that ibiki would be in a forgiving mood. it wasn’t like they had told the chunin their identities or anything. he'd just happened to guess right on tigers identity.the door slammed open to reveal a very pissed off ibiki with hawk coming in right behind him to close the door. they stepped away from the chunin knowing there was nothing else they could do at this point.  
"so you think you know one of my anbu?"  
his voice was like liquid fire, iruka just tilted his head forward to get a better view of the angry man before responding chipperly.  
"yep"  
grinding his teeth ibiki asked.  
"and how did you come by this amazing conclusion"  
smiling at the fuming man in front of him, not recognizing the danger before him, iruka replied.  
"i work at the mission desk-i see everybody that comes in, i see their scars, their body language everything about them."  
frowning ibiki walked over and placed his hand on bear's shoulder.  
"and him, do you know him?"  
iruka craned his head to take a look at the bear mask before smiling and nodding  
"whats his name then if your so observant."  
"asuma"  
the anbu sighed as he bowed his head, ibiki walked over to tiger and again iruka answered.  
"kurenai"  
walking over to wolverine iruka kept the funny look on his face.  
"raidou"  
ibiki was getting madder as he went around the room, coming to stand beside wolf and hawk he asked the chunin to identify the last two anbu in the room.  
"that’s genma, hi genma- and that’s kakashi, but how's you change your eye color, did you use a genjistu or are you wearing contacts cause that’s a pretty nifty trick."  
he was in the middle of his rambling when ibiki strode forth and broke another one of his fingers to shut him up. the chunin let out a small 'ow' before looking to the irate man.  
"how do you know them"  
the man growled out. iruka smirked up at the fuming man and said.  
"i just told you silly, i work at the missions desk- which reminds me, raidou the hokage didn’t like your last report it was too messy for her to read so you need to redo it before thursday. wait is it passed thursday i don’t know what day it is"  
another sharp snap had the chunin whine before looking back at the assailant attacking his hand.  
"tell me the truth!"  
"ibiki- he cant lie, he's under the truth serum"  
the man ignored kurenai and instead grasped the last finger and waited for the mans final reply. iruka apparently thought all of this was funny because he had gone back to laughing under his breath. only stopping enough to tell ibiki.  
"hokage-sama is gonna be so mad at you-"  
snap. ibiki stormed to the door ordering 'gag him' before leaving. sighing the anbu did as instructed and put a soft cloth in the chunin's mouth to prevent him from speaking any more. it didn’t stop iruka from mumbling through the cloth, but it did prevent him from saying anything else damaging. looking to one another they weren’t sure what to do, could they take off their masks now? or were they supposed to try and convince the chunin it was all just a dream? before they could argue amongst themselves ibiki came back, this time with a green liquid. the anbu winced as he harshly jammed it into the chunin's neck, the man yelped into his gag. ibiki waited a couple of minutes before undoing the mans gag.  
"alright smarty pants, tell me where would orochimaru go to hide?"  
iruka frowned for a moment before answering quickly  
"he likes mountains"  
rubbing his head, ibiki was about to hurt the chunin when bear stepped in.  
"what kind of mountains?"  
turning to look at asuma, iruka thought a moment before answering.  
"he likes deep caves, maze like places. he likes to confuse his enemies and lay down traps."  
ibiki growled out.  
"we already know all of that"  
iruka shrugged before asking quite seriously.  
"dude did you guys get your tattoos together? is it some kind of ritual or something?"  
the broad grin on iruka’s face only lasted a moment before a quick blow to the head had the chunin out cold.

******

"i have to go speak with the hokage, take off those bloody masks, it wont do any good anymore. gag him if he gets annoying when he wakes up."  
with that ibiki was gone leaving the anbu to watch over the unconscious man. it was kurenai who looked at the broken fingers.  
"ibiki sure was mad"  
the others nodded, she didn’t bother trying to straighten out the fingers knowing it would only cause the chunin more pain and ultimately he would need a med nin to take care of his hand if he ever wished to have full use of it back.  
kakashi rubbed his sharingan eye, using his finger to remove a contact lense he blinked a couple times before sliding his hidden hitae over his left eye. meanwhile genma fished out his favorite senbon and popped it into his mouth. all they could do was wait for their leader to return with instructions from the hokage and hope that the chunin hadn’t just granted himself a death sentence.

*********

iruka couldn’t even bring himself to groan, he felt like shit. he lay there for some time with his eyes closed just relishing the ability to keep them closed, when the sudden urge to hurl had him vomiting over himself. immediately he felt people tugging on his restraints trying to get him loose so he wouldn’t choke, but he just kept vomiting, he couldn’t inhale and couldn’t really exhale he was trapped in between the two actions which made his head swim. he was roughly yanked onto his side and had his back hit roughly to try and induce coughing, it worked surprisingly well and soon the chunin was gasping for air. the group of anbu sighed in relief when they heard the teacher take his first gasp of air, they had at first been unable to get his hands free it wasn’t until asuma used his trench knife to just cut the damn rope that they were able to turn the chunin on his side, when he didn’t start coughing they reacted immediately striking his back hard to induce coughing. as the man continued to cough and gasp the anbu looked to one another. that had been too close for comfort.  
"iruka can you hear me?"  
kurenai tried to get the man to respond to her, but the man just kept coughing. sighing she left him be for a moment longer. before commenting.  
"we cant tie him up again."  
the others nodded, it was obvious the man was going to continue to be sick from the truth serum, and the last thing they wanted was to have the chunin die while in their care. when the coughing finally died down they tried to talk to him, but all iruka said was  
"god damn this sucks"  
smiling a little kurenai knelt down to make eye contact with the man, rubbing his arm to get him to open his eyes. seeing the red eyes of kurenai iruka couldn’t help but try and smile, it didn’t reach very far, but it was an effort on his part.   
"can you sit up?"  
iruka nodded and with a little help they got him sitting up. looking down to himself he grimaced, he was covered in his own vomit. the throbbing in his hand caught his attention for a minute before he sighed.  
"im gonna guess i was extremely mouthy"  
they smiled back at him, iruka just nodded his head. it was genma who spoke out.  
"how'd you really know it was us?"  
iruka glanced back at the senbon sucking man.  
"i just know- i've seen you all so much over the years, i guess i shouldn’t be surprised i mean you are elite jounin after all." reaching up he rubbed his neck where the injections had taken place. he winced once he touched the tender flesh there, taking his hand away he rested it behind himself to hold himself up. iruka refused to make eye contact as he mumbled.  
"now what?"  
the anbu didn’t know quite what to say so they chose to remain silent. it was kakashi who let the chunin know what was going on.  
"ibiki went to talk with the hokage"  
"ah"  
tilting his head back he took a deep breath, the nausea was getting worse again. he had enough time to warn them this time as he hurled over the side of the table he was still presently tied to. once he was done heaving he wiped his mouth and laid back down much to the surprise of the anbu.  
"you alright?"  
iruka shook his head, his eyes closed he tried to control the roiling of his own stomach as it rebelled against the drugs that had been forced into his body.  
"you need to stay awake"  
iruka sighed, somehow he was disappointed in them upon hearing the request. he didn’t say as much, just opened his eyes and stared into nothingness. he ended up vomiting two more times before ibiki got back. the man seemed less than pleased when he returned. and even more pissed off at seeing all the mess. he quickly yelled for a clean up crew and ordered them get iruka some new clothes at the very least. so iruka sat there while raidou went to grab a new outfit for him, his ankles still tied to the bed. he refused to look at the angered man at the foot of the gurney. he knew ibiki would talk when he wanted too and at the moment iruka had nothing to say to the man. just as he thought it was ibiki who spoke first.  
"do you realize how much trouble your in"  
"i can guess"  
he stated dryly.  
"no no you cant"  
iruka settled for nodding his head at the threat. raidou returned with a plain shirt and some baggy pants in his hands. ibiki came forward and cut the ties around his ankles before saying rather smugly.  
"don’t bother trying to stand, with your chakra pathways cut you'd be useless"  
iruka didn’t bother to respond to the bait, instead he simply took the clothing offered to him and said a small thanks to raidou. none of them bothered to turn around, he knew he wouldn’t be given any privacy, so he just started stripping, taking his flak jacket off and then his first layer off which had absorbed most of the vomit. finally getting to his last layer of clothing, iruka blushed a little while removing his shirt. although he probably didn’t have nearly as many scars as they did, there were traces of his mission days on his body. more so there were a decent amount of scars left from his sensei, but he wasn’t about to bring that up to them. instead he struggled to get his pants undone with only one hand, he managed but it was thoroughly embarrassing to be seen that way. once he had them off, he pulled the baggy pants over his legs carefully, everything hurt now and all he wanted to do was sleep for forever. again he realized this wasn’t an option. once he was done he nodded to ibiki. the man just frowned at him before stating.  
"we will continue tomorrow after i have taken care of some things. it would be in your best interest to cooperate"  
iruka didn’t have a chance to respond before the man was out of the room. sighing iruka looked down to his aching legs. he could feel the chakra pathways trying to reconnect, but without a med nin they wouldn’t be able too. he was no fool he knew if they didn’t allow a med nin to heal some of these things that there would be permanent damage. instead of focusing on that, which made him both angry and sad at the same time, he reclined again on the now clean table. he didn’t bother to close his eyes, instead opting to start his favorite pass time of counting the cracks in the ceiling.  
"iruka?"  
"hmm"  
"i'm-"  
iruka didn’t let her finish, he knew what she was going to do to try and make things better. but frankly he didn’t think that was possible anymore. so instead he turned away from her. kurenai closed her mouth, knowing that the man wasn’t ready to hear what she had to say. asuma came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, putting his head on the top of hers. it was no secret anymore that the two of them were together, so it seemed only natural for them to seek comfort in one another for what they had had to watch and inflict upon the poor chunin. with his back to the majority of the anbu he simply starred ahead at the wall. genma and raidou were on this side of him so they made sure he stayed awake. it was raidou who tried to lighten the mood a little.  
"did the hokage really hate that report?"  
iruka didn’t look at the man, but he did reply.  
"she used it as a coaster for her sake"  
the other anbu chuckled at raidou's misfortune, his lover genma switching his senbon from side to side. iruka wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now. was he supposed to act like everything was alright, that shinobi he had come to respect hadn’t just played a part in his torture? some how their previous conversations about memory alteration came to mind and the thought wasn’t so abhorrent anymore. at least with these memories gone, he wouldn’t have to remember being surrounded by shinobi he respected all throughout his torture. curling his arm around his hurt hand he brought it up to his chest like any child would do to protect a wound from being touched. genma and raidou looked to one another before giving a signal to their comrades a crossed the room. after a moment asuma tried to talk to the chunin.  
"ano- the kids are doing good in their training"  
iruka didn’t respond to asuma's bribe of information about his previous students. instead iruka seemed to be tracing something on his wrist with his good hand. stepping closer raidou was able to see two small scars on the mans wrist, puncture marks. like the fangs of a snake. leaning back against the wall he sighed. it was easy enough to give a signal to his teammates about what the man was doing to those on the other side of the room. they all tensed upon learning what the chunin was doing. the fact that they might be the reason this cheerful, caring man breaks was not lost on any of them. the kids truly loved their old sensei holding him in high regard, and none of them knew how to explain if something had to happen to the man to those students. they finally resorted to quietly talking to one another about stupid things, just to keep the silence from filling the room. occasionally there would be a scream from another room, iruka didn’t flinch anymore at the noise, he didn’t even inhale sharply anymore. he simply continued to trace the scars on his wrist.


	6. giving in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this chapter finds iruka facing the aftermath of his discovering his anbu guards identities. with that secret revealed, iruka must deal not only with the fact that he knows those who were participating in his torture, but that they might too believe that he is an enemy of konoha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter for the day! i promised to not leave you hanging too long so here it is and with it brings a change of scenery for the group. i'll be posting some more chapters tomorrow so stay tuned, things are going to get interesting.

iruka had refused to talk to them when they tried to engage him in conversation, he never tried to sleep, but he never tried to do anything really. he just lay there on his side fingering the marks left behind what they were sure to be a poisoness snake. the door opened to reveal a abnormally calm ibiki. his hands folded over his chest, the man approached the chunin, ignoring the anbu situated around the room.  
"you going to answer any questions i have for you?"  
at first it looked like iruka wasn’t going to answer ibiki which they knew would anger the temperamental nin, but iruka finally shrugged which seemed to be enough for the interrogations officer. shooing the anbu to the other side of the chunin ibiki leaned up against the wall facing the chunin, iruka continued to look straight ahead and rub at his latest attempt at taking his own life. ibiki seemed to catch on to what the man was doing and bluntly asked.  
"so you want to die now? after all of this, learning who they were was what did it?"  
the men and women behind the chunin winced at the man’s probing. unsure as to what had brought up the sore subject. it wasn’t until they saw iruka’s shrug that they realized just how broke iruka appeared to be. frowning at the chunin ibiki went to reach forward, but the chunin pulled away suddenly. ibiki stopped, the frown on his face growing, he obviously wasn’t used to his prey getting away from him.  
"don’t move"  
the tone of voice left no room for argument, reaching out to the chunin again, iruka flinched but didn’t resist as the interrogations officer took his good hand away from the scar.  
"i asked if you wish to die now?"  
"doesn’t really matter what i want ibiki"  
the chunin’s voice was calm and steady as he answered the man.  
"no it doesn’t, but that still leaves the question of why your tracing your old scar"  
looking down to his wrist iruka looked at the two identical puncture wounds. they were perfect in every way, except that they hadn’t managed to do the job. looking over to ibiki for the first time since the nin entered the room, iruka asked.  
"the only thing i want is to go home"  
"that’s not an option"  
"then don’t ask me what i want."  
frowning at the man ibiki let go of the hand he held. iruka slowly took it back, placing it under his head like a pillow as if to keep it away from being used against him again.  
"i'll ask whatever i like and you'd do good to answer"  
again iruka just shrugged at the man's irritation. ibiki reclined himself against the wall once more before pulling out his little book he had been recording everything in. iruka glanced at it before looking at the floor.  
"curious?"  
"about what you think about me? no, not really."  
ibiki frowned at the man, he wasn’t used to being talked to like this. he was starting to get annoyed with the chunin.  
"listen iruka, we can do this the easy way or the hard way i really don’t care which way it goes, i'll get what i want either way, but you might want to consider how much pain your willing to endure just to be obstinate. the hokage has already informed me how she feel’s about this whole debacle and i will take great pleasure in fulfilling my job requirements to get information by any means necessary. so what will it be?"  
for some reason, iruka got mad at that comment, like he had a choice in anything that was happening, if he told the truth he wasn’t believed if he took the damn drugs he was believed but puked his guts out and made a fool of himself in front of people he would potentially have to see on a day to day basis. iruka had no doubt that no matter what answers ibiki got to these questions he had for him, that his life was never going to be the same. everything he’d worked for over the years, all the hard work and determination to rise above his sensei’s dark shadow were gone. it was with that knowledge that he resolved to at least have some control over his situation even if it was minutely he spoke quite clearly.  
"you better go get more drugs then"  
ibiki nodded, leaving without another word. the anbu standing behind him looked at the frail man in front of them, they couldn’t see his face, but they had a pretty good idea of what the chunin was thinking.  
"iruka- are you sure you want to do that?"  
raidou spoke up out of concern for the chunin who had always been kind to him and genma. iruka just shrugged before commenting.  
"whats the worst that could happen? i take the drug and get sick as hell, or take the drug and possibly OD, or don’t take the drug and let that bastard torture me for shits and giggles. i think i'll take option one"  
genma stepped forward, switching the senbon in his mouth to the other side before speaking around it.  
"pissing him off isn’t gonna help you any"  
"neither is answering the damn questions"  
came the hostile reply. shaking his head genma leaned back against raidou and waited with the others for ibiki to return. it didn’t take long for the man to come back in toting another dosage of the light blue liquid. approaching the chunin he filled the needle and waited for the man to show him his neck. when that didn’t happen he let out a subtle growl of the mans name.  
"iruka"  
sighing, iruka dropped his shoulder down, exposing his neck. the needle went in swiftly and the plunger was depressed allowing another dosage of that special cocktail to enter the chunin's system. iruka lay there, waiting for his mind to get hazy, ibiki having taken his seat in the chair pulled off to one side so he could look at the chunin while he questioned him. iruka rather suddenly turned to his other side, irritating the man, but not garnishing a response. instead iruka just looked past the bodies of his allies, never glancing to their faces. it didn’t take long for the chunin to start looking around the room sporadically, a simple nod from kakashi got ibiki to start the line of questioning.  
"alright iruka, lets see where we left off, ah yes your suicidal and have been attempting to end your life for some time. according to your health records you've never been admitted to the hospital for anything related to a suicide attempt. how is that?"  
"im not close with anyone, i'd just call in sick for a few days until i healed up and go right back to work"  
"i see, and no one questioned any of the new scars on your body?"  
the chunin shook his head  
"no one noticed"  
nodding his head ibiki wrote something down, before continuing.   
"and do all of these attempts be solely about your wish to protect people from yourself as you stated before, or have you also wished to harm yourself because you enjoy it"  
"don’t know"  
"do you plan to attempt such things in the future if your allowed to leave this facility?"  
"yeah"  
"and why is that?"  
"don’t want to be here anymore"  
nodding his head ibiki moved onto a more relevant line of questioning.   
"your relationship with jinchuriki has been something people have wondered about, is it simply because you pity the boy-"  
"i love him"  
"you love him, like you loved mizuki?"  
the anbu winced at the implications to the man’s words, but iruka shook his head as he answered.  
"no, he's like a kid brother to me. i have to look out for him"  
"i see"   
writing some more down in his book it was kurenai who spoke up.  
"have you ever told anyone of your suspicions of people in the anbu ranks?"  
ibiki frowned at her, but she wanted to try and prove that the chunin wasn’t a threat to their identities.  
"no, never thought about it until all of this happened."  
"and would you tell anyone?"  
"no"  
"why"  
ibiki cut her off.  
"because-its forbidden"  
kurenai smiled at ibiki obviously wanting to impress upon the man that iruka wasn’t a threat. ibiki ignored the woman and instead asked.  
"so you'd be following orders is that correct?"  
"yes"  
"and yet in your previous missions it seems you have a history of having problems with following orders. why is that?"  
kurenai frowned at ibiki, but along with the others waited for the chunin’s response.  
"probably because sensei didn’t hold anyone in high regard"  
"so you follow his beliefs in that no one is above you?"  
iruka shook his head on his arm.  
"everyone’s above me, i just don’t like taking orders from people who think their better than me"  
"so everyone you've worked with has looked down on you, is that it?"  
iruka shrugged before mumbling.  
"its seemed that way"  
"alright, lets talk about your last mission with your teammate, the one where you killed your teammate, at his request. why did he request such a thing of you?"  
"he was dying"  
ibiki frowned upon hearing the man’s calm reply.  
"why?"  
"genetic disorder, he had planned on letting the enemy ninja kill him in the field, but when he was paired with me, he figured he could just ask me to use my summons and end his suffering."  
"which you did"  
ibiki cut off quickly.  
"yes"  
"and did you enjoy killing him?"  
"no"  
writing something down in his book, ibiki ignored the pleading looks from his anbu, it was obvious that they were starting to fail at distancing themselves from the chunin. whether that was because of how long they had been watching the man or the fact that he now knew who they were he couldn’t be sure, either way he wasn’t about to put up with desertion in his ranks.  
"do i need to order you all to leave?"  
"no sir"  
came the reply from the group. nodding, ibiki went back to his questioning of his prisoner.  
"good, iruka whats your opinion of our present hokage"  
"she drinks too much"  
the anbu smiled, everyone knew that tsunade had a drinking and gambling problem.  
"other than that"  
came the dry reply from ibiki.  
"she's quick to anger, impossibly strong and can heal just about anything so long as there’s no blood around. she has issue’s when there’s blood."  
"so you know of her weakness to blood"  
"sensei told me"  
nodding his head ibiki asked the next logical thing in his mind.  
"i see, did he speak of other people?"  
"yes"  
"who?"  
"jyrayia, the clan leaders, the council"  
"so all the important figure heads in konoha"  
"yes"  
"and you didn’t think to report this to the hokage?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"no, i thought he was just messing around, he complained a lot about people in the village. most of the time it was nothing, it was hard to ascertain when he was being truthful."  
standing, ibiki motioned for the anbu to join him on the other side of the gurney iruka was laying on. they walked around to stand beside ibiki, though it was apparent that they were confused by this move. ibiki had his anbu officers move so that they could watch the chunin’s face again, so they could truly see the man’s answers for themselves. they’re attempts to distance themselves from their own involvement with the chunin needed to be curbed and this was the best way he knew how. by forcing them to face the prisoner and watch everything first hand.  
"and after your encounter with his little messenger, did you do anything?"  
"tried to kill myself after the third died"  
nodding his head ibiki lead on.  
"anything else? you didn’t try to chase after your sensei?"  
iruka shook his head before adding.  
"no one was being allowed in or out of konoha, i couldn’t have left even if i wanted too."  
raising a brow ibiki asked.  
"did you want too?"  
"yes"  
the anbu glanced to one another, that wasn’t a good thing for the man to say.  
"and why did you wish to go after your sensei?"  
"to try and reason with him, to get him to return sasuke to konoha and end this war"  
"but instead you stayed in the village continuing to teach the children while simultaneously trying to kill yourself. did you believe yourself to be of sound mind to be around children?"  
iruka shook his head once more as he told them all.  
"no, but we were already short on teachers. i couldn’t leave them with another load of kids to teach. so i tried to do my best"  
"i see, have you ever thought of trying for a higher rank using the skills orochimaru taught you? surely with he knowledge he passed onto you, you could be a force to be reckoned with."  
the anbu were worried about where this line of questioning was leading. the chunin was oblivious to what was going on around him and so he answered not withholding anything.  
"yes, to get stronger"  
"and what would you have done with that higher ranking?"  
"protect the village"  
came the monotone reply, the anbu had small smiles on their faces upon hearing the man’s dedication to their village. ibiki ignored his anbu in favor of asking.  
"from what?"  
"anything"  
"even orochimaru"  
"yes"  
"even if it meant your life?"  
"yes"  
the anbu released a breath they didn’t know they had been holding. at least it appeared that the chunin had good intentions with the knowledge he had gained from the snake sanin.   
"tell me iruka, are you disappointed in yourself for disappointing orochimaru?"  
"yes"  
the anbu winced, that was not a good answer.  
"why"  
"i only wanted to make him proud of me"  
"and now knowing he isn’t, how does that make you feel?"  
"angry"  
ibiki tilted his head as he wrote a few things down on his papers as he questioned the chunin.  
"angry? why?"  
"cause i tried so hard to be a good shinobi, yet we just weren’t meant to remain on the same path."  
"and do you think your a good shinobi?"  
"no"  
nodding his head, ibiki continued to write down some notes that the others couldn’t see. whatever ibiki was writing, they couldn’t help but call into question if it was for the good of the village or the good of iruka.   
"alright iruka, if you could do anything right now, without any punishment, what would you do"  
"punch you"  
the anbu couldn’t hide their smiles, not very many people ended up liking ibiki, especially after being on the receiving end of his interrogation techniques.  
"that’s all? you wouldn’t want to kill me or anyone else?"  
"no-though i might be tempted to lose all of their reports for a while and make them do them over and over again."  
the anbu smiled, this was the type of character they had come to know of iruka,he had a temper yes, but he was good natured. ibiki smiled at the nin in front of him, the man’s answers were amusing, but he had more important things to figure out so he asked.  
" the hokage wishes to know why you refused the thirds offer"  
the anbu looked to ibiki not understanding what the man was talking about. iruka calmly explained.  
"it was too much, i didn’t deserve it"  
"i see, so you didn’t believe you would be strong enough for the position?"  
iruka nodded, his head was starting to clear a bit, and it reflected in his eyes. ibiki pressed on anyways.  
"you understand that it is a high honor to be granted such a position so close to the hokage, you would have effectively been his right hand man"  
the anbu’s eyes widened, iruka had been offered the position of regent to the hokage? shizune now held the position looking after the well being of tsunade, but if the third had really offered him such a position, why turn it down.  
"i understand"  
"why didn’t you deserve it?"  
"im tainted"  
"what do you mean by tainted iruka?"  
ibiki waited for the mans response but none came, instead the man just blinked a couple of times before shaking his head like a dog would.  
"iruka, what do you mean by your tainted?"  
iruka looked up to ibiki owlishly. his eyes a little unfocused before replying.  
"times up"  
in a dry tone. frowning at the chunin ibiki made sure to drive home a very important point.  
"you wont be going anywhere until all my questions are answered"  
iruka laid his head down and shrugged his shoulders he was fighting back the rising nausea, calmly retorting to the man  
"and you wont get answers unless you drug me"  
ibiki growled under his breath before replying menacingly.  
"you realize you could O.D. on truth serum."  
"one could only hope"  
turning away, ibiki quickly left the room without saying another word. looking back to their ward, they stared at hazel eyes that just blinked at them. that is until, he reached for the bucket they had placed near him, he heaved, but with nothing left in his system to throw up all he was doing was dry heaving. he spit into the bucket before laying back down. kakashi decided to advise him.  
"you should have just answered him"  
"where's the fun in that?"  
iruka mumbled as he readjusted his head on his arm. kakashi frowned at the chunin. before asking.  
"are you sure you don’t enjoy torture?"  
iruka didn’t bother to respond at first before retorting the legendary copy nin.  
"would you be so open with your past?"  
kakashi didn’t know quite what to say at that, but managed to reply.  
"if ibiki was the one asking the questions i would answer."  
"that’s why were very different people"  
the chunin let out a huff of air as he got as comfortable as he could. just staring straight ahead at the wall. the anbu looked to each other for clues as to how to make the chunin talk to them, to get more answers for ibiki to hopefully spare the chunin more truth serum. the screaming from down the hall began again and like some sick twisted theater iruka could almost count down to when ibiki would return to him. in the meantime he just tried to avoid talking with his 'comrades'.  
"are you feeling any better?"  
iruka didn’t bother to reply to that question, instead choosing to close his eyes for just a moment. apparently he had had them closed too long because a battle worn hand touched his shoulder causing him to jerk awake. asuma pulled his hand back simply nodding to the chunin. iruka sighed, but didn’t bother to try and close his eyes again. instead he went back to staring at the wall. it didn’t take long for him to zone out again, just thinking on what was happening to him. then a horrible idea struck him, if he was gonna die who would tell naruto? he knew it would most likely fall to kakashi, glancing to the sharingan user he met the normal eye of the man before quickly looking away. taking a deep breath he tried to process everything that he knew. ibiki wasn’t about to let him go, apparently having to many unanswered questions. having discovered their identities, he was in serious trouble with not only ibiki but the hokage. his loyalty to konoha was being torn apart in front of him and he was utterly alone while being surrounded by people he used to have faith in. finally he came up with what he thought would work out the best for everyone. looking to kakashi he frowned at the ninja gaining his undivided attention.  
"what?"  
kakashi wasn’t sure why the chunin was glaring at him above all people, but he was going to find out why.  
"i need a favor"  
raising an eyebrow he waited for the chunin to respond. they all did, wondering what on earth the chunin could be requesting of kakashi while in this predicament.  
"a favor? you realize that asking me to let you go is out of the picture right?"  
iruka snorted at the anbu, he wasn’t that stupid.  
"honestly, why the hell would i try to ask that? no it concerns naruto"  
"im listening"  
biting his lip like he was prone to do in times of stress iruka broke out of his own thoughts to continue his conversation with the copy ninja.  
"he's not gonna just accept that i became a traitor, if that’s what they decide to go with, so your gonna have to either tell him the truth bluntly and i mean down to the detail bluntly or lie through your teeth like you've never lied before"  
kakashi was a little astounded by the request but allowed the chunin to go on, he wanted to see where this was going. he wasn’t the only one kakashi could practically hear the gears turning in his teammates heads as they listened in to what the man had to say.  
"it'll be easier if you say i died from complications from a wound or some bull crap like that, he'll more than likely leave it alone, but if someone calls him back to let him know about me he might request to see me, don’t let him- just say he should remember me as i was or something, i don’t want him to see me after this"  
in truth the chunin looked like hell warmed over, he hadn’t slept in days and had deep circles under his eyes and had some interesting patterns of bruising from where ibiki had slapped him. it was raidou who tried to be a voice of reason after listening to the man’s lengthy request.  
" your jumping to conclusions that their going to order your death"  
iruka shrugged before responding  
"its better to be prepared for something then be overwhelmed by it"  
kakashi nodded his head before saying.  
"if it comes down to it, i'll make sure he's taken care of in regards to you"  
iruka smiled for the first time in a while, a true smile that they could tell, this wasn’t a mean spirited one, but one of thanks. rolling onto his back, he groaned a bit before getting as comfortable as he could. idly iruka did wonder how his other students were doing, but he didn’t have the heart to ask and find out. it was going to be hard enough to leave anyone of them behind. he didn’t even flinch when ibiki came through the door, instead he just started counting cracks on the ceiling as if the man had never entered.  
ibiki stared at the sight before him, all of his anbu were to on one side of the chunin and he had apparently interrupted something by the way their faces displayed sorrow. turning to the chunin, he asked.  
"telling sob stories iruka?"  
"bite me"  
ibiki's eyes widened, the chunin had balls he'd give him that. the anbu themselves were shocked at the chunin’s gal to talk to ibiki like that. instead of growing angry though, ibiki simply approached him,   
" too much truth serum is bad for the body"  
"who would have guessed that"  
frowning at the lippy chunin, ibiki continued what he was going to say.  
"so i've decided to give you a break from that, no point in melting your brain inside your skull"  
iruka shrugged, not really paying attention to anything the nin was saying to him. iruka didn’t struggle when his head was jerked to the side by a gloved hand, or when a needle was roughly shoved into his neck. he was prepared for what was about to happen, or so he thought. the previous conversation meaningless to him until his body seized up in pain.  
it wasn’t truth serum that had been pumped into him, it was the chakra surge concoction. iruka screamed, bucking and curling in on himself at the same time. the anbu jumped forward to pull him back, to try and prevent him from flailing about. kakashi frowned at ibiki, they should of had the teacher restrained properly before he did that. as it was, the chunin had crashed his head back against the table and managed to claw at his throat with his good hand. ibiki shook his head to his anbu, he wasn’t in the business of caring for other people and he had a job to do.  
"come and get me when its done"  
with that he left the team to struggle to tie down the chunin as he fought to thrash around as his chakra raced through broken pathways.   
iruka didn’t know how much time had passed, all he knew was that he had lost his voice halfway through and couldn’t even manage to make a sound as his body continued to be wracked with violent tremors. his eyes were screwed tight as he endured the pain as well as he could, his mouth open in a silent scream, his hands were clenched shut digging fingernails into his palms. even his broken fingers had curled in a macabre display of tangled bone and flesh. finally the tremors began to subside, only aftershocks tremoring his body and causing random spikes of pain. allowing himself to sink into the table beneath him, iruka found himself idly wishing that he could just convince them to kill him. it wasn’t worth it. his life would never be the same after this even if he was proven to be innocent, he could never go back to his life before this. he vaguely heard genma say he would go get ibiki, he didn’t bother to open his eyes, he figured they knew he wasn’t trying to sleep. he must of fallen unconscious because he was suddenly being shaken rather roughly by ibiki. his arms and legs now untied from the table. groaning, ibiki threw him back down to the table.  
"time to wake up"  
iruka coughed weakly, somehow the air had become dusty to him. he rolled to his side and curled upon himself as much as he could comfortably, it wasn’t much but it gave him some comfort.  
"now are you feeling more cooperative? i have a very simple question for you. what are your intentions"  
iruka's mind couldn’t wrap around the question, intentions? he thought he had already answered this question with everything else he had said, wasn’t it clear that he didn’t want to hurt anyone, well except for maybe himself.  
"iruka"  
coughing again, the chunin nodded his head to show he was listening. allowing his body to uncurl some he tried to relax as much of his body as he could, keeping it tightened did nothing for the pain radiating throughout his body.   
"what do you mean"  
it came out as barely a whisper, but ibiki heard him.  
"your intentions, do you intend to stay in konoha for the rest of your life, or would you flee the city if given the opportunity? would you be loyal to our hokage or would you spill secret information to other countries. would you die for konoha?"  
ah so this was what he wanted, he wanted iruka to say something that would damn him, after all the torture he expected iruka to want to high tail it out of konoha and betray them as fast as possible to the highest bidder. he couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh, licking his lips he spoke.  
"your a slow learner aren’t you-konoha is my home"  
ibiki grit his teeth at the first part, he didn’t like be demeaned by some lowly chunin whose head he had on the chopping block.  
"would you die for konoha?"  
"just kill me"  
it was barely a whisper but all the parties inside the room heard it. kurenai couldn’t contain the gasp that left her lips. ibiki was frowning at the subject of his ire. this man had broken, that much he was sure of, but how much of a danger was he to the village like this?  
"so you still think killing yourself is the answer?"  
iruka didn’t bother to reply, he simply shut his eyes and relaxed as another tremor rocked his wiry frame. looking to his anbu ibiki silently asked their opinion on the matter. it was obvious that they couldn’t completely detach themselves from the fact that they knew the man, but they also hadn’t done anything to stop the progression of the case.   
"alright iruka, if you would rather take the cowards way out, that can be arranged"  
iruka nodded his head, not bothering to open his eyes. he felt as light as a bird, finally it was all going to end. they wouldn’t be able to torture him anymore and he would be free to see his parents again, if kami deemed him worthy enough to pass over. a small smile graced his lips as ibiki called for the anbu to join him out in the hall, mildly yelling over his shoulder to iruka to stay put. the man raised a hand and flipped him off.  
upon shutting the door, the anbu waited for ibiki to speak to them about the chunin.  
"the council has deemed him a threat"  
the anbu lowered their heads, they understood what that meant. even if the chunin wasn’t suicidal, he wouldn’t be getting out of this mess unscathed.  
"as such, the hokage is making arrangements for him to be transferred to a more permanent location, once that is ready we will escort him to his new quarters and his sentence from the hokage will be carried out within the following week depending on her schedule. any questions?"  
the anbu shook their heads, there was nothing more they could do for the chunin beside try to be his friend as they guarded him through his final moments. ibiki nodded his head and turned to leave, he stopped himself and managed to say.  
" for what its worth, i think he was a good teacher"  
with that said, ibiki continued down the hall to enter his next guests quarters. re-entering the room they found iruka just where they had left him, with only a slight change. he was sitting up for a change and staring at his mangled fingers. it really did hurt, he couldn’t deny that, but there was no way he could straighten the fingers on his own. deciding to chance it he asked.  
"can one of you straighten out my fingers?"  
the anbu were a little surprised by the sudden request, but asuma came over and gently took the chunin’s hand, examining the damage to the digits that were now twisted in the wrong direction.  
"you sure?"  
"why the hell not, it might hurt but at least then it will not look all jacked up"  
nodding his head, asuma grasped one of the chunin’s bent fingers and with a sharp crack made it straight again. iruka didn’t cry out at the pain, he had no voice left for that, but he did bite his lip. asuma glanced at him waiting for him to tell him to continue or not, with a nod from iruka, asuma moved onto the next finger. this continued until all of the fingers were facing the right direction again. asuma then returned to kurenai's side to merely watch the injured chunin. they didn’t know what to think about iruka, it was like the decision that he wouldn’t make it had just cleared the chunin's head and he was just excepting it.  
"i don’t suppose i could sleep now could i?"  
raidou shook his head before clarifying.  
"were gonna be moving you soon, so just wait until we get to the new location and then you can sleep"  
nodding his head iruka tilted his head to the side before asking.  
"new location? you guys are gonna be watching me, don’t they have other people to do things like that."  
"your to be moved to secure location until sentence is carried out"  
"ah, how long?"  
"until we move you, an hour or so-"  
"no until sentencing"  
"a week or more depending on the hokage's schedule"  
iruka didn’t seem impressed by this and simply stated matter of factly.  
"one of you could do it and it would be done, why the wait?"  
they winced at the cold hard fact that the chunin’s life was literally in their hands right now. iruka didn’t seem to notice their revulsion to his claim of how easy it would be for them to kill him.  
"everyone is given a chance to speak with the hokage before their sentencing, your case is no different"  
iruka shrugged,before asking.  
"cant i just waive my right to that?"  
they looked to one another, they weren’t sure about that, they would have to ask ibiki, but it was kurenai who asked.  
"iruka, you realize this is your life at stake"  
the chunin nodded his head to the red eyed beauty before him. he smiled up at her and said.  
" there's really no point to all this-nothings going to change between now and then"  
as they were about to argue the chunin’s words, another anbu came into the room and spoke swiftly saying it was time to move him. iruka couldn’t help but call out.  
"umm how ya gonna do that, my legs don’t work at the moment"  
the man glared at him from behind his mask, it didn’t go unnoticed by the chunin but by now he was just too tired to care.  
" a med nin will be provided to make you movable"  
replacing their masks, the anbu were prepared to escort iruka as soon as the med nin had seen to him. sure enough a couple of minutes passed before a young girl in scrubs came in, she looked nervous being around all the anbu, but seemed rather shocked to see a man like iruka needing her aid. she didn’t bother to speak to him, she knew that was against the rules. she simply mended his sliced chakra pathways as best she could, giving him back the ability to walk, it would take a few days for his pathways to heal properly, but this treatment was just to start the natural healing abilities innate in iruka’s body. with the chakra lines mended his body could take over fixing the rest of the damage. the med nin was rather shocked when iruka thanked her. nodding her head she darted around the anbu and made her way quickly from the room.   
iruka couldn’t help but bite his lip,drawing blood as his pathways were reconnected, it was by no means an expert job, the connections were fragile at best and would only allow him the use of his legs for walking. any attempt on his part to use chakra could split the seams apart and land him on his ass. sliding his legs over the side of the table he tentatively set his first foot down on the floor, it hurt, boy did it hurt, but he refused to need to be carried. standing before the anbu, iruka panted as he tried to get used to the sensation of his legs tremmoring at just holding him up. he nodded to the anbu in the room and was escorted out of the room that had been his torture chamber for the last couple days. he was lead down a long hallway to a staircase that made his knees weak and his muscles cry out in pain. by the time they got to the top he had to call to them to stop.  
"i-i need a break"  
they nodded and allowed the chunin to catch his breath, sweat was pouring down the side of his face and he labored hard to not fall down, he knew he wouldn’t be getting back up if he did. taking a deep breath he steadied himself and nodded to asuma to continue on, surrounded by an anbu on every side escape was impossible. it was a short journey to another bunker, this one however was above ground at least. iruka couldn’t help but smile at the feeling of the sun on his face. making their way to the third cabin down the row, iruka entered the new space to find it large and not overly inviting. he didn’t expect a welcome home sign, but it was rather bland. however, it had everything they could need for the next week. finding the couch he was quick to sit down, he let out a harsh breath as he was finally able to relax into the softness of the couch. with the door locked and closed, the masks came off again. the anbu simply watched the chunin as he seemed to relish the simple comfort of sitting on something other than the wooden chair he had been chained too. they joined him in the living room, taking up places that were comfortable for them. asuma and kurenai took the love seat across from him, while genma and raidou leaned against one of the walls. it was kakashi who fell in beside the chunin on the couch. it was the copy nin who stated rather suddenly.  
"you can sleep now"  
iruka nodded, but found himself wide awake, kami was the world against him. it was kurenai who suggested he go into the bedroom to rest where it would quiet and dark. iruka nodded and slowly made his way to one of the sleeping quarters, two of his anbu followed him, he wasn’t all to surprised when genma and raidou took the opposite bed to recline on. iruka was pretty much dead to the world as soon as his head hit the pillow.


	7. desperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> waiting for his sentencing iruka finds himself at odds as to what to do with his present situation. on one hand he gets to rest and eat and on the other he has no idea what the future holds. his mind tells him not to hold out hope that anything good will come of his interrogation being over with. the hokages word is law after all and iruka has no doubt that he wasn't all that cooperative with ibiki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here we are, another day another chapter. as far as action goes i feel this one is a little lax, but there is plenty of angst lol. things will really start to heat up in the coming chapters, so hang tight and make sure to check back...i might just keep posting two chapters a day, after all there's like 37 more chapters to post.
> 
> thank you for all of you who keep writing me all those lovely comments, it really makes my day. and to those asking, yes the entire story is already finished. all 44 chapters. i tend to finish my stories before posting them in case i end up going back to revise things. that said this takes months to do as i have no beta, so i do the best i can to fix any errors there might be in the story before posting.

a gentle shaking woke him. turning to face the person shaking him awake he mumbled.  
"what did konohomaru do now"  
a smile graced asuma's face as he chuckled at the chunin’s reply to him waking him.  
"hopefully he's listening to his sensei's"  
shaking off the last dredges of sleep iruka sat up and waited for asuma to say that food had been prepared. instantly he was reminded of the fact that he hadn’t gotten to eat in the last couple days. smiling at the anbu iruka thanked him and slowly made his way back into the living room. the group was already situated and beginning to eat their meals. kurenai handed him a plate and told him to go sit down.  
"did you sleep well"  
she asked as she observed the still tired looking chunin. iruka nodded around a bite of food before chewing and swallowing.  
"yes, i was dead to the world i think, you guys could have let naruto through and i don’t think i would have woken up"  
he smiled in mirth at them, they smiled back, but their smiles were forced. their train of thought brought back to what they were going to tell their teams should the worst happen. iruka didn’t notice their strained appearances he was too busy eating the amazing food before him. once he was done he leaned back and asked who had cooked.  
"mah that’s classified"  
iruka laughed at genma's joke. sighing into the couch he just relaxed, it was kinda nice to be surrounded by people. granted they were there to make sure he didn’t try to run or do something stupid, but it was still nice to have someone to talk too. he didn’t even realize he was drifting to sleep until another person shook him a little and told him to go back to bed. he followed the leading anbu back into the room and was out like a light.  
he could hear birds chirping and iruka smiled in his comfortable position in the bed, he loved sleeping in on sundays. his eyes snapped open as his mind reminded him that this wasn’t a pleasant dream, this was in fact reality and it wasn’t sunday at least as far as he knew, the days had all jumbled together down in the interrogations center. sighing iruka twisted around to stare out the window, he could see a tree, but that was about it. he would have to get up out of bed to be able to see more of the village. throwing the covers away, he walked over to the window and peered out at the village he loved so very much. it was still in ruin, but he had no doubts that they would rebuild the village back to its former glory.   
"your not thinking of bailing are you?"  
turning around iruka shook his head at raidou  
"was just enjoying the view"  
the man nodded, allowing the chunin to go back to watching the outdoors for a while. it was genma who came in to get them for breakfast. iruka followed, limping most of the way. his body was so sore, it felt like back in his genin days with training with...he couldn’t let his mind go down that path again. sighing, he gained the attention of his guards, he waved them off before walking passed them gingerly to find a spot on the couch, which currently had kakashi spread out on it. the nin pulled his legs back to allow the chunin to sit for which he thanked the copy nin.  
breakfast was a slow affair, not much was said and once they were done eating iruka asked if he could help with the dishes, kurenai looked at him for a moment before nodding her head. smiling he was more than happy to help with the chores around the place, it would at least give him something to do. he was rather despondent once they had cleaned up the kitchen and put everything away, taking his place back on the couch he stared at the ceiling for a moment before asking.  
"what are we supposed to do now?"  
"wait"  
iruka stuck out his tongue much to the amusement of his guards. turning to kakashi, he had to ask.  
"did you ever tell your team that you had been anbu. in the past i mean"  
"no"  
"oh, i thought they would have liked to have learned about you a little more"  
"they asked a lot of questions, doesn’t mean i'd answer them."  
iruka frowned at the anbu, which got him a raised eyebrow from the nin.   
"do you answer all the questions your asked?"  
kakashi countered. iruka knew it was baiting him, but he couldn’t help but retort.  
"when people arn’t assholes yes, and i've always answered my students questions."  
rather surprised at the chunin’s choice of words it was asuma who asked.  
"what if they asked about your genin days."  
iruka shrugged before responding.  
"i told them i had teammates just like they would, i had a sensei that i trained under until i was strong enough to try for the chunin exam."  
"they never pressed further?"  
iruka snorted at that before stating in an amused tone.  
"no, kids don’t really care that much to delve deeper, they just want to know the cool stuff like can you blow something up with your mind if you practice enough."  
the anbu laughed at the chunin's example.  
"do your students really believe some of those things."  
iruka smiled and nodded  
" oh yes, you'd be surprised what the children believe, whether its knowledge that has be misconstrued through the grapevine of kids or if their older siblings tell them lies to get them off their backs, one way or another i was constantly correcting them"  
"can you blow things up with your mind?"  
glaring at kakashi iruka shook his head.  
"no, but i do know how to throw a fireball jutsu and have that explode"  
that caught the anbu's attention.  
"who taught you that?"  
iruka smiled before looking away. they understood the implications. it was...him.   
"it doesn’t really matter, i never used it, i just have a bunch of random knowledge is all"  
" you could have gone far in the ranks"  
iruka shrugged, he didn’t really want to talk about that, it always lead back to him. so instead he moved onto other topics.  
"are all the children getting along?"  
knowing that the chunin was done talking about it, they didn’t press, he'd revealed enough about himself over the past couple days.  
"for the most part, they have their squabbles like all team members do, but they seem to be getting on pretty good."  
iruka smiled, he was glad to hear that his students were doing so well. looking up to the ceiling again, iruka couldn’t help but think back to when he assigned the children to their teammates. how some showed their disdain right away and how others seemed to like who they were paired up with. he'd tried to pair people up that would make a difference in each others lives, to make them better people.  
"your a great influence to the children, their always saying how you taught them so well"  
iruka smiled at the compliment, but couldn’t bring himself to make any remark on the subject. he was growing rather tired and so excused himself to go lay down. the anbu weren’t fooled of course, but they left him be, one of them coming to sit in the room with him. with his back to his guard iruka allowed the silent tears to fall. he'd never get to see those children again.

**************************

after the chunin had left, raidou following after him the group couldn’t help but comment.  
"he's depressed about the kids"  
"it cant be helped, he isn’t allowed out of here"  
kurenai nodded, she knew the rules, but it didn’t change the fact that iruka was still suffering. she could still remember his question about her use of genjitsu.  
"at least i could see the kids again, even if it was a lie"  
sighing, she leaned against asuma and stared out the window, it was going to be a long week.   
iruka ended up sleeping most of the second day away, never bothering to leave the room even when food was prepared, simply stating that he wasn’t hungry. raidou did ask him to come into the other room though so they could keep an eye on him while they ate, not wanting to make things any more difficult for his guards iruka complied without a word. curling up on the couch, he pressed his face into the cushion of the couch. that way he wouldn’t have to face their gaze. dinner was a silent affair.   
staring at the ceiling, iruka couldn’t help but analyze how many cracks there were in the ceiling, it was a lot like counting sheep he guessed, but it didn’t seem to make him sleepy. he'd awoken in the middle of the night to find himself back in bed, one of the anbu having moved him while he slept. so he stayed there, not moving an inch. he knew anbu were sensitive to even the slightest of disturbances and didn’t want to wake any of them standing guard. he watched as darkness gave way to light, the sun coming through the window. iruka closed his eyes when he heard movement from the other bed. he knew that they weren’t fooled by his attempt to pretend he was sleeping but thankfully they didn’t say anything either. silence rained in the room until his guard simply asked him to come into the other room. iruka didn’t argue.   
iruka picked at his breakfast, not really having an appetite. his mood continued to go downwards as the day progressed. he was frustrated, he wanted this to all be over to not have to wait until the hokage had time to deal out his punishment. sighing iruka opened his eyes to see kakashi staring at him over his perverted novel. he looked away first.   
"ne iruka, you never said-what happens to you if you have other forms of alcohol"  
looking over to genma he gave the nin a faint smile, he knew they were trying, but he just didn’t have anything left to give.  
"i get sick"  
he left it at that and closed his eyes, reclining into the soft couch he could feel their stares. the anbu weren’t sure what they could do for their ward, it didn’t seem like anything they did made a difference in his mood. they couldn’t blame him for feeling the way he did, with the type of situation he was in it wasn’t surprising that he would start to wall himself off.   
they left the nin alone, letting him stew in his own thought throughout the day and not bothering to question how he wasn’t eating very much, they couldn’t very well argue with the nin who was certainly facing the prospect of his own execution. it was on the fourth day that iruka asked quietly.  
"are we allowed to go outside?"  
"you cant leave the grounds"  
asuma said with some remorse.  
"no i know that, but just outside. i know you'd have to wear your masks and all and im sure that’s uncomfortable, but i'd like to feel the sun"  
surprisingly it was kakashi who spoke up.  
"i'll take him"  
standing up the silver haired man gathered his mask and slipped into it with ease. following the now masked kakashi, iruka smiled as soon as the sun hit his face. taking a deep breath of the fresh air he just stood there, right outside the door to his jail cell. they ended up walking around the perimeter of the rows of quarters, iruka knew he wasn’t the only one being housed here. but he did wonder if any of them were truly traitors. coming back to stand before the entrance way to his proverbial cage, iruka sighed before thanking kakashi and entering the small enclosure. rejoining the group he simply nodded when they asked if he had a nice walk. although he was still visibly limping, his legs were beginning to heal, it was a slow process for sure, but at least now they didn’t scream agony as they had before. rather out of the blue iruka looked to genma and raidou and smiled to them, they piqued an eyebrow at the chunin who then stated.  
"when are you guys gonna get married?"  
the anbu nearly died of laughter at the expense of their friends, it was raidou who was able to speak first.  
"that-is a very personal question"  
iruka smiled at the anbu before hotly replying.  
"after what i've told you guys i think im allowed"  
that sobered up the anbu, but iruka didn’t seem to be in bad spirits about it, he had excepted that the anbu now knew too much about his past. there was nothing he could do about that. noticing that he had made them uncomfortable iruka apologized, genma waved him off though.  
"we never really talked about it."  
he stated honestly. iruka gave a faint smile before becoming more interested in his nails. standing abruptly he said he was going to take a shower, no one bothered to follow him, they only requested that he leave the door unlocked. he agreed and went to soak his weary body in the hottest water he could handle.   
standing under the scorching heat of the water, he wasn’t surprised when his skin began to turn red from the excessive heat. but it made him feel better. he'd always relished in the ability to reground himself by some harsh form of self punishment. he needed it now the most. there was a sudden knock on the door.  
"yeah?"  
"you ok in there?"  
"im fine"  
"ok"  
he heard the soft footfalls disappear again and smiled a little to himself. deciding that he had been in the water long enough and that he was turning too pruney for his tastes, iruka shut off the water and wrapped a towel around himself. coming to stand before the mirror iruka didn’t like what he saw. over the last couple days he’d avoided the mirrors, granted there weren’t a lot of them around the place they were staying in, but all the same he hadn’t wanted to see what he looked like. now it was practically unavoidable and what the mirror told him wasn’t pleasant.   
the bruises from ibiki were changing color, slowly starting to heal, the bags under his eyes had retreated, but were still there. besides that he looked unusually pale to himself. even with his skin a bright red from the hot shower, he didn’t look healthy by any means. iruka retreated to the bathtub once more, drying off he wrapped a towel around his head to try and catch some of the dampness from his hair. sitting on the edge of the tub, he contemplated what he was to do now. he knew he had to wait until his skin turned back to normal or he'd face a barrage of questions from his guards most likely. they wouldn’t understand his need to self regulate. lost in thought he didn’t hear the first knock on the door. he heard the second though and wrapping the towel around his lower half called out.  
"im almost done"  
"alright, but hurry up dinner's almost ready"  
sighing, he put his head in his hands, he didn’t know what to do. should he just try and end it now before having to face the hokage and see that look of disappointment again or should he wait and just grin and bear whatever they had in mind for him. standing up on autopilot, iruka clicked the lock into place without even noticing what he was doing. looking once more in the mirror he couldn’t hold back the rage anymore, he was so angry with himself with the village with everything. he smashed the mirror into a thousand pieces, his hand going right through it, he immediately heard racing footsteps, but didn’t bother to answer when they called out to him. it was only a moment longer before a puff of smoke appeared and he was no longer alone. his arm was bleeding from several gashes caused by the falling mirror shards. but he didn’t try to remove his hand from the demolished mirror, he just continued to stare straight ahead. a gentle hand came to land on his shoulder.  
"iruka, what happened?"  
the anbu had taken notice of the man's bright red skin, it looked like a bad sunburn, but it was obvious as to how it had happened. likewise it wasn’t hard to deduce what the chunin had done to his arm. but he needed to know why.  
"iruka"  
the teacher shook his head, pulling his arm out of the debris of the mirror, he didn’t argue when the anbu took his arm into his hands to look at the damage he had caused himself. he heard the anbu sigh, before he saw the body move past him to unlock the door and allow his teammates to open the door. the whole time iruka just stood there. gentle hands guided him out of the bathroom, and into the living room, still only wrapped in a towel the chunin normally would have been embarrassed by this situation, but now he felt only numb. he could vaguely hear the anbu talking around him, but couldn’t make out what they were saying, they weren’t talking to him so it really didn’t matter. he was pushed onto the couch, where an anbu knelt in front of him and started the task of cleaning up his arm. luckily it was his good arm and not the hand that had already incurred damage. tiny pieces of mirror were removed from the chunin’s arm, as the anbu tended to the wounds. none would require stitches, but it would need to be bandaged.   
the chunin continued to stare straight ahead into nothingness. not once complaining about the treatment of his arm or the fact that he was basically naked in front of all of them. wrapping the injured arm didn’t take long and when that was done they lead him to the bedroom where a pair of loose fitting pants were given to the chunin to put on. he did as told, completely on autopilot. once he was no longer naked, they started to pull the chunin towards the door to go back into the living room when he pulled away. they watched as he crawled into his bed and turned away from them. it was obvious that their job had just gotten a little harder. they had no more trouble with iruka that night as he fell asleep shortly after climbing into the bed and remained like that until morning much to the relief of his guardians.   
raidou stared down at the curled up form of the teacher, it was breakfast time, but all of them weren’t sure if they should wake the teacher since he seemed to need the sleep. ultimately he decided that iruka could always go back to bed after he had eaten something. he hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day so food really was needed at this point he was sure. gently shaking a bare shoulder, iruka's eyes cracked open to blearily look up at him.   
"its breakfast time"  
iruka blinked at that, but didn’t make a move to get up or reply to his announcement. sighing raidou was about to ask the chunin to just come into the other room so they could keep an eye on him when iruka buried his head in his pillow again.  
"come on iruka, you have to get up now"  
"go away"  
at least they appeared to be making progress, he was talking again at least. the lack of response they had gotten last night had frightened the group of anbu. it was so unlike the charismatic chunin.  
" you know i cant do that, especially after last night"  
iruka let out a deep sigh, he should have just summoned the damn pit viper and had it bite him a couple dozen times, that would have least put him into a coma for a while. not relaying his dark thoughts, iruka slid out of the bed much to raidou's approval. ignoring the anbu he walked begrudgingly into the main room of the house. never bothering to say good morning to anyone, he sank into the couch and curled his arms around his knees which were brought up to his chest which lay bare for all of them to see. the chunin didn’t seem to mind having his body on display, so they didn’t comment on it. they offered the chunin some breakfast, but it was ignored. they watched as iruka used his bandaged hand to scratch at his scar on his face before leaning back against the couch. the silence was too much for the anbu who had too many questions to ask. it was finally kakashi who asked the first question.  
"you knew we'd get in so why do that?"  
iruka shrugged, looking down to his bandaged arm, he thought back to the time his sensei had broken it in three places. he jolted back to reality when he heard his voice being called out.  
looking up he saw a concerned kurenai looking down at him. he didn’t bother to try and smile instead he just put his head on his knees.  
"we have to report the incident to the hokage"  
iruka didn’t react to that, he just continued to stare off into nothing. it was genma and raidou who decided to go and talk with the hokage about last nights events. they weren’t gone more than a half an hour, but in that amount of time iruka had managed to fall asleep on the couch. the moment the two returned they were asked by asuma.  
"what did the hokage say."  
genma glanced to the sleeping figure on the couch before responding.  
"she said that it wasn’t surprising given his past and the amount of stress he's under. she warned us that he might lash out again, depending on what’s going on in his head. were supposed to watch him carefully."  
the other anbu nodded, tsunade wasn’t the best med nin around for nothing, she understood the human body like no other and if she thought that iruka was going to lash out, then he most likely was going to. each taking their places around the room they got comfortable for the rest of the day spent in silence. iruka didn’t stir until it was almost dinner time, groggily he reached out and tugged on the bandage on his hand. he pulled away suddenly when kakashi reached over to stop him.  
"you need to leave it alone"  
iruka didn’t say anything, just let his head come to rest on his knees again as he stared at the wall opposite of him. a while later found the chunin given a plate of food to which he pushed the food around his plate for the hundredth time, not ever bringing some to his mouth. his guards watched as he appeared to be making a mini village in his food. once he was done with his masterpiece, he set the plate aside. asuma gathered up the dishes and began to clean up the house with the help of genma. it didn’t take long as none of them were really messy in nature and once that was taken care of they returned to the living room to find nothing had changed. it was kakashi who tried to end the silence by speaking to iruka again.  
" nothing is set in stone yet-we don’t know what your sentence will be, only the hokage knows, but giving up now isn’t going to help you"  
iruka frowned a little at the nins speech, but otherwise didn’t react. he knew what his fate was going to be, he wasn’t scared of dying, he was more scared of being stuck living with his life torn apart. tilting his head down into his lap he mumbled out.  
" im tired of waiting"  
"just two more days iruka, just try and relax"  
the chunin didn’t respond to kurenai's attempts to placate him. instead choosing to let them know he was going back to bed, genma followed behind him, iruka paid him no mind as he sat down on the bed he had been sleeping in. it seemed like all he was doing was sleeping, but he really had nothing better to do and even after all the sleep he'd managed to get he still looked like shit. leaning back onto the bed, iruka shut his eyes and he waited.

*****************************

the next day was pretty much the same, they managed to get iruka out to the couch were he remained during the day, refusing to really eat much and then going to bed as soon as the sun had set. he didn’t speak to them, instead choosing to contemplate his options. he was running out of time to have control over his own fate, he knew that. but he also knew there was no way that his anbu guard weren’t going to leave him alone, he was even followed into the bathroom when he had to take a piss now. turning over in his bed he glanced at kakashi, the nin was sitting against the wall seemingly asleep, but iruka knew he was awake.   
" cant you just make me numb or something until its time"  
"i could, but im not going to"  
was the reply he got from the 'sleeping' copy nin. iruka stared at him only a moment longer before turning back over to face the window. kakashi opened his eye and observed the still form of iruka. the man was getting desperate, and desperate men did rash things.  
morning of the last day came, iruka trudged out to the couch, ignoring the people around him. today was the day, he had to do something so he wouldn’t have to face the hokage tomorrow, he couldn’t stand to see another person look at him like he was a disappointment. he'd seen it one too many times. letting his mind wander, iruka began to formulate his plan.  
they knew iruka was most likely going to try something today, the group of anbu had been surprised that nothing had happened yet, but with this being the last day before he was seen before the hokage. it had to happen today, but they weren’t sure what it was. it was hard to tell what the chunin was thinking. he was good at hiding his emotions. it was only when the chunin stood abruptly and headed for the door that asuma cut him off.  
"where-"  
"i want a walk"  
sighing asuma allowed the man to continue to the door, grabbing his mask quickly he trailed behind the chunin. they hadn’t gotten very far from the building when iruka turned to face him suddenly, eyeing the chunin carefully asuma asked.  
"whats wrong?"  
iruka didn’t say anything at first, but finally broke his silence by speaking in a steely resolved manner.  
"i don’t want to do this anymore"  
sighing, asuma was about to try and encourage the man to just hold on and that maybe his punishment wasn’t going to be so severe, but before he could asuma watched in shock as the chunin tackled him down , asuma felt the chunin's hand grasp something from his waist before he got to his unstable feet and ran, cursing under his breath, asuma jumped to his feet and started after the running chunin. reaching to his side he cursed again when he felt one of his trench blades missing. the anbu used his tattoo to let his teammates know there was something wrong and that he required back up, it was only a second later that they were giving chase along side him.  
"what happened?"  
"he tackled me and ran like a friggin deer and he's got one of my knives."  
it didn’t take them long to locate the teacher, iruka had obviously known he wouldn’t get far and so hadn’t bothered to waste his energy in trying to outrun them. they were at a standstill now though as they couldn’t approach the chunin, iruka held a very sharp blade to his own throat with his body backed up near a large tree to prevent attacks from behind. his eyes were looking up at the sky to avoid any eye contact as he was smart enough to know that having a genjitsu user and a sharingan user were something he did not wish to fight against at the moment. regardless of the chunin’s attempts to avoid his ability kakashi immediately uncovered his sharingan, all he needed was a second of eye contact and he could end this entire situation, but iruka seemed to be a step ahead of him, because he simply stated.  
"im not going to look at you kakashi-and you cant stop me, you know i can slice myself from ear to ear before you make half the distance"  
the chunin really was smart, he had managed to formulate this entire situation in the time it had taken them to reach him. being backed up against a tree made it impossible for one of them to sneak up on him and his refusal to glance their way made both kakashi and kurenai useless at the moment.  
"iruka put down the knife"  
"no"  
came the blunt reply from the agitated chunin.  
"you don’t want to do this iruka"  
iruka didn’t bother to hide the fact that he was crying. the tears came without his consent and he was left standing before these powerful shinobi with a knife to his throat as he broke down. the anbu were edging forward as they were trained to do, taking each step with caution. they froze when they saw a drop of blood slide down the chunin’s throat, the blade biting into his delicate flesh.  
"iruka don’t"  
they knew they were running out of time, it was obvious that the teacher was breaking in front of their very eyes. it was a rare occurrence for anyone to see, but a ninja breaking was never something to be taken lightly. it was a well known fact that everyone goes through it at sometime in their lives, but it varies person to person and just how bad the breaking is. this was a bad break, a very bad break, all the anbu could see that. kakashi took another step forward while talking to the distraught man.  
"what about naruto"  
kakashi knew it was chancy to try and use the blonde against iruka at this moment, but he was hoping that the connection iruka had with the boy might stall him. iruka sobbed, he couldn’t bring himself to reply at first but then with a choked back sob stated.  
"he's going to be a great shinobi"  
genma had taken up a flank position, raidou mirroring his lover on the opposite side of iruka, but no one could progress without the teacher threatening to cut his throat open. already blood was starting to flow beneath the cut he'd made into his neck. it wasn’t life threatening, but it was the beginnings of a final blow. it wouldn’t take much pressure to rip his throat open with the blade.   
"iruka please listen to us"  
iruka was out of time, he knew that, they were closing in on him and if he truly wanted to do this he would have to act soon or lose the opportunity all together. pressing himself back against the tree like a frightened animal he let the blade bite into his flesh a little more, increasing the pinching sensation on his neck, he could already feel the steady flow of blood as it ran down his chest. taking a deep breath iruka whispered out 'im sorry' preparing to take the final cut.  
they watched as the chunin kept applying more pressure to his neck with the blade as they drew closer, none of them appeared to be in a position to stop the distraught man, but they had made up some distance and could possibly transport themselves in time, but it was a risky move. iruka continued to look up, refusing to make eye contact with anyone of them, knowing that they would try to trap him in an illusion. kakashi could see the subtleties in the mans arm as he brought the knife against his neck, it told him everything he needed to know.   
hearing the teacher whisper an apology they dove forward to try and stop him, it was a combined effort of skills of well coordinated team that ultimately prevented even more blood from being spilled. the chunin was agile in his movements, bringing the blade tighter against his own neck, he was beginning to press down on it harder, when iruika was suddenly jerked backwards. his arms immobilized by a chain that wrapped him around a tree. genma and raidou's chains working in tandem to bind the man against the tree and prevent any movement, it was kurenai, who grasped his wrist, preventing him from cutting any deeper and asuma who tore the blade out of his hand. knowing he had failed, iruka looked to the ground, there was no point in trying anymore, he couldn’t escape even if he used all of his chakra. it was a gentle hand on his shoulder that prompted him to look up, he met the mismatched eyes of kakashi and promptly fainted. the simple command from the sharingan forcing him to sleep.   
they all sighed, it was over. they'd managed to stop him from killing himself. unwinding the chain around the chunin, asuma caught the nin's body and hoisted him up over his shoulder. stashing his blade in his weapons pouch before turning to make the slow and silent trek back to the interrogation compound. 

************************

once they were securely inside the building and it was locked down once more, asuma laid the unconscious man on the couch. another team member went to get the first aid kit, they would need to clean the cuts iruka had managed to give himself. the others gathered around the couch, watching the sleeping figure silently. kurenai grabbed a blanket from an adjoining closet and draped it over the chunin. looking to kakashi she had to ask.  
"what'd you do?"  
"he's sleeping- will be for a while i imagine."  
nodding her head she glanced over to her lover to see him frowning down at the chunin, no doubt he was disturbed by the man trying to use his blade to kill himself. she was startled from her musings when genma returned with the first aid kit and offered it to her, she set about cleaning the cuts and taped a small bandage over them to allow them to breath, but prevent infection. with iruka’s injuries tended to for the moment there was nothing more for them to do, but wait.


	8. a bittersweet moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in this chapter we finally get to find out what the hokage thinks about iruka. she gives her order as to what the chunin is to do and how her orders will be carried out. its a tough blow to the chunin who after his lengthy interrogation and his attempt on his own life finds himself numb to what lays ahead of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day! thank you once again for the all the comments. i understand a lot of you have issues with grammar or punctuation, but im sorry im not an english major and i dont have a beta so im doing the best i can. trust me when i say i know how irritating it is to find a story line you like when small things in the text bother you. that said, at least i made an effort, so many authors just slap shit together now a days. so if your this far into the story, dont bother writing a comment to gripe about those particular issues cause its not gonna change. i've already reviewed the entire story from top to bottom and done all i can to fix things that i find obtrusive to the flow of reading.
> 
> alright with that out of the way, thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with my story and i hope i can keep you entertained for the remaining chapters. its a long ride ahead of us, but what a ride it shall be. oh and yes i know im diabolical for only posting two chapters a day when the story is complete. im evil, mwahahahahahahahaha.

they stayed like that for the rest of the morning, never drifting from his side even though he slept peacefully thanks to kakashi's sharingan. it wasn’t until late afternoon that the teacher showed any signs of waking. he moved restlessly in his sleep for a minute or two before hazel eyes cracked open. the anbu regarded him coolly, prepared to put him back to sleep if he chose to fight them, but all iruka did was lay there. his throat hurt and dully he noted that he should have been smart enough to have poisoned the blade before he cut himself. but it was too late now, he thought bitterly. looking to the first face he saw, he didn’t see anything but concern. he hated that look, that pitying look. he didn’t want their pity, he just wanted to end all of this, couldn’t they understand that?   
"iruka, do you want anything?"  
the chunin shook his head dully, he felt he should at least answer them after the day he had caused them. after spending so much time with hem he had learned that ignoring the group really wasn’t the best option for him, after shaking his head he closed his eyes. iruka tried to will himself back to sleep, but it didn’t work. after laying there for what felt like an hour or more attempting to fall back to sleep iruka opened his eyes again. he slowly sat up on the couch, allowing the blanket to fall down and pool around his waist. the academy teacher didn’t move a muscle for a moment before sliding his legs off of the couch to stand in the middle of a ring of anbu. he knew they had to be angry with him for the stunt he pulled, but he couldn’t bring himself to apologize for something he didn’t regret trying. instead he walked over to the nearest window just gazed outside, the anbu didn’t stop him, but they watched him carefully. he stayed like that until the sun began to set. never tearing himself away from the view until he could no longer see outside. walking back towards the group he wasn’t sure what to say, what to do. so instead he simply made his way down the hallway to the bedroom in silence, never minding the sound of numerous footfalls behind him. iruka laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a couple of hours before finally speaking to the anbu surrounding him. he was sure that the entire squad was in the room with him at the moment.  
"how much longer"  
his voice was raspy after the crying, running and the wound he’d managed to give himself, the tape pulled on the skin making his voice waver more than he felt it should.   
" we go in the morning"  
the response was supposed to offer some kind of comfort he was sure, but it did nothing for iruka. iruka sighed, turning onto his side he got as comfortable as possible. the anbu finally began to relax now that the man seemed to have settled for the night. with glances between them they broke away from one another, leaving two of them with the chunin at all times while the other took breaks out in the main room. iruka woke only once in the night to go to the bathroom before returning and going back to sleep without a word transferring between him and the anbu who followed him like a shadow.

**************

when morning came the anbu prepared themselves for a fight if necessary, they weren’t sure how the chunin was going to react this morning. making sure they had all their gear and their masks were in place genma gently shook the teacher to awareness. iruka didn’t say anything, he just stood and followed them into the main room before they disappeared in a cloud of smoke only to appear before the hokage in her office. the anbu spread out around the large room leaving iruka to stand alone in the center. there was a horrible silence in the room before the hokage finally broke it.  
"iruka, i see you tried to hurt yourself again"  
the man in question shrugged his shoulders, not bothering to make eye contact with the intimidating woman. taking a drink of her sake she regarded the figure before her. she'd gotten ibiki's report and had taken it into careful consideration when thinking about what was best for the village and for the man in front of her. ultimately she had to do what was best for the village over the individual, but at the moment there was still a little time and she would use whatever power she had to try and help the man in front of her.  
"i spoke with ibiki about your case"  
there was no recognition at all on the chunin's face.  
" do you want to know what he suggested?"  
iruka shook his head, he really didn’t care what that man thought about him. tsunade frowned at the man’s lack of response, but moved on as it would do neither of them any good to try and talk about things before the man was ready.  
"alright, well regardless i have come to the decision that you are a threat to not only yourself but the village as it stands now, you know deadly techniques for which there are little equals too. you could be an unstoppable force if you unleashed all of what you have been taught"  
halfway through what the hokage was saying iruka turned to look out the window at the beautiful skyline of his home. he relished the picturesque view, savoring what he was sure to be his last glimpse of his home. he waited for the final verdict to be decided by his hokage and she did not disappoint as she got straight to the matter at hand.  
"as such, i have decided that you cannot be entrusted with the protection of konoha. your recent attempts on your own life suggest that you are mentally unfit for duty. "  
iruka nodded at the hokage’s assessment of himself. it was all true.  
"therefore, you shall be reprimanded to the care of a specialist for treatment in rehabilitation. you shall be under their care for no less than three months and then be reevaluated to see if you are mentally stable enough to start taking care of yourself again. you are effectively off of active duty until such time that you are deemed able to return to working without possible injury to yourself or others. until that point you will have a legal guardian who will be in charge of your well being and who will oversee your care when you are not directly under the specialists eyes. they will report back to me and the specialist as i see fit."  
iruka was numb, he was being stripped of everything that mattered to him, he was going to be coddled like an infant until they thought he was suitable to take care of himself and until they allowed him to return to active duty. it wasn’t lost on him that the school wasn’t mentioned, it obviously was no longer an option for him as a career and he would either have to settle with desk work or return to the very missions that he loathed. frowning iruka continued to look outside never voicing his opinion on the matter. seeing the chunin frown tsunade asked what was wrong. she wasn’t surprised when he didn’t reply to her question and instead chose to continue with what needed to be said.   
"you will be watched at all times to make sure that you are not a threat to yourself of anyone else, now moving on, we have the issue of you knowing the identity of your current anbu detail. as you know the typical solution to this is having your memory erased, but ibiki agreed with me that tampering with an unstable mind would be asking for more trouble, so you are forbidden from speaking about anything you heard or saw while in their care. you are to treat them as normal citizens when you come across them and to regard them with the utmost respect when they are in their anbu attire, do i make myself clear?"  
iruka nodded, he had no intentions of telling the nins secret to anyone. he had no one to tell it too in the first place, but he supposed that little fact was lost on them.   
"good, do you have any questions so far?"  
iruka thought a moment, he had a hundred questions, but he knew that none of them would really be what the hokage wanted to hear at the moment since most of them pertained to why she couldn’t just kill him. so instead he shook his head no. the hokage wasn’t fooled by his demeanor, she knew he more than likely was just in too a dark place right now and couldn’t be brought out of it enough to see the opportunity to start over. sighing she took another swig of sake. before writing on a piece of paper and handing it over to kakashi.  
"alright, last piece of business and then you can go. i thought long and hard about who to place you with, i needed someone who could keep a close eye on you, but still be able to defend themselves if it came down it it. as such it was no surprise that i chose someone of a higher rank than yourself. i expect you to behave yourself while in their company. they will be reporting back to me weekly on your progress, this will determine when you can start to have more freedom around the village. do you understand?"  
iruka nodded, never taking his eyes off of the sun that was cresting through the mountains and hiding behind some white fluffy clouds. normally the hokage would be irritated by someone seeming to ignore her, but she understood the current circumstances. she had read his file, the reports from ibiki and the thirds own assessment on the man in front of her. it had been a long time coming for him to need some help. it was just a shame he hadn’t asked for it himself before having to go through this all.   
" you'll be staying with kakashi while you go through rehabilitation, he is in charge, his word is law do i make myself clear?"  
iruka finally turned to look at her, his eyes were dull and didn’t show the normal spark she was used to seeing in the man.  
"hai hokage-sama"  
she hated to hear him say her title that way, like some kind of robot just spouting out what he thought she wanted to hear. waving her hand she motioned them all the leave.   
following the anbu the group left the hokage tower, coming to stand in front of it the anbu asked if kakashi needed anything to help with the transition. he shook his head and put his hand on iruka’s shoulder.  
"we wont have any problems. were just gonna take it easy right sensei?"  
looking to the man who could only be described as smiling with his eyes, iruka nodded his head before returning his gaze to the ground. the other anbu nodded and in a couple puffs of smoke were gone. leaving kakashi with his new ward. 

*************************

"come on, my apartment is only a few blocks over, we can enjoy the fresh air."  
iruka followed him like a lost puppy, never straying from his eyesight, always right on his heel. kakashi kept a watchful gaze on the chunin as they approached his apartment building. climbing up the steps to the third floor seemed to tire the still recovering chunin and silently kakashi hoped the man would get some rest while he took care of a few things around the house. unlocking the door he motioned iruka to go in. upon entering the foreign place iruka saw a nicely decorated apartment, traditional scrolls hung from the walls, while framed pictures adorned a few tables. he was rather surprised not to see any weapons laying about or hung on the walls which was traditional for a shinobi's home, but then he figured that kakashi must have locked all of that away to keep him from harming himself.  
"make yourself at home"  
iruka nodded slowly looking around the apartment, going from one item to another to inspect what made kakashi's place so warm. he wasn’t expecting that of the normally aloof man, but his place felt genuinely comforting. he picked up a picture that showed kakashi as a child, under the tutelage of the fourth hokage, he smiled faintly. it was obviously a treasured memory and he doubted there was another copy left in the village. carefully placing it down he went to pick up another photo when he sensed that he was being watched. turning slightly he saw kakashi smiling through his one open eye.  
"sensei was always one for photos"  
iruka smiled, looking down to the photograph once more. he never knew the fourth personally, but he had heard how great of a man he was. reaching for another photograph iruka took a deep breath, it was team seven's photo. the team was now divided split into three parts of its members. iruka couldn’t help but feel sorry for how things had gone, that maybe if he had done more for his sensei the man might not have defected. sensing the man's mood, kakashi came to look over the shorter mans shoulder to see what he was looking at. seeing team sevens photograph kakashi figured the man was thinking about naruto, who had left with jyraiya only a couple months ago.   
"naruto should be back to the village in a couple months after he learns some from jyraiya"  
"what about sakura?"  
kakashi was a little surprised by the sudden change of topic from his favorite student, but told the man what he knew.  
"she's thinking she wants to become a med nin, and hokage-sama is considering taking her a student"  
the chunin let out a shallow chuckle, looking over his shoulder iruka couldn’t help but mutter.  
"so their all learning from a sanin it seems"  
kakashi frowned, he normally didn’t talk about sasuke, since it tended to upset his other students, it was obvious that the same could be said for the chunin in front of him. deciding to change the subject he asked.  
"you hungry?"  
the chunin shrugged while placing the photo back down on the end table. turning around to face the jounin/anbu he frowned for a moment when he realized the man wasn’t behind him like he had been a moment prior. sighing he walked a crossed the room to lean against the doorway to the kitchen where noises were coming from before asking.  
"what should i call you?"  
"mmm my name would be appreciated"  
the man spoke while rummaging through his fridge. iruka rolled his eyes at the man’s wit, but didn’t say anything at first as he watched the man sort through the contents of his fridge as if he was expecting an enemy to jump out and attack him. looking around iruka realized just how fortunate kakashi was that his apartment building was near the hokage tower and hadn’t taken any damage in the attack. his own building was sure to be demolished from what he could recall from before he was taken by the anbu. perhaps it had already been taken down, the thought sobered him a moment before iruka shook his head as if to clear the dark thoughts themselves. the chunin sighed before returning to his previous conversation with his host.  
"that’s rather forward don’t you think"  
"mah were all friends here"  
shaking his head at the jounin, iruka twisted around from the kitchen and slowly made his way over to the sliding door that led to the small balcony. he knew the other members of kakashi's anbu team lived around here as well, as he often delivered things for the hokage, his mind immediately reminded him that he didn’t do that anymore, he used to deliver things, now he was just...nothing. sighing iruka leaned against the glass just gazing outside.  
kakashi found some leftovers from the last time he had been home and quickly heated it for himself, he wasn’t going to the force the chunin to eat-yet. coming to stand just outside the kitchen with his meal he observed the chunin looking out the window. idly he wondered what the chunin was thinking, but knew better than to try asking. instead he took the opportunity to eat while the chunin’s back was turned. placing the take out container in the trash he went back into the living room to see that the chunin was now seated on his couch, just staring at the ceiling. it appeared ceilings were really popular with iruka.   
"so what now?"  
the chunin mumbled. kakashi shrugged before taking a seat in the chair a crossed from the chunin, fetching his favorite novel from his vest he began to read. kakashi didn’t pay any attention to the glare that was sent his way, instead choosing to turn the page of his book. hearing the chunin sigh the jounin glanced up as iruka lay against the back of the couch. it wasn’t until he caught the chunin's eye that iruka chose to speak.  
"i would think there would be better things for you to be doing then babysitting me. couldn’t they use your help trying to move debris or something?"  
the chunin waved his hand in the air, motioning towards the window and the view of the demolished village. kakashi glanced out the window before shaking his head.  
"hmm not really my forte"  
snorting the chunin faced the jounin before him.  
"you could still help"  
"afraid not, already got my mission"  
the man said in a happy tone. iruka glared at the man before stating in a cold tone of voice.  
"me?"  
"yep"  
kakashi looked up from his book and smiled at the chunin. iruka just continued to frown at him.  
"that’s not much of a mission"  
kakashi shrugged before idly commenting.  
"you gave asuma a run for his money-how did you get his blade off of him?"  
iruka stared unflinchingly at the man a crossed the room from him before he said with a bite to his tone.  
"classified"  
iruka smiled coyly at the jounin causing the silver haired nin to raise an eyebrow. now he was intrigued.   
"meh keep your secrets then, i'll figure it out eventually."  
iruka chuckled having frustrated the copy ninja. deciding to keep the conversation going iruka couldn’t help but ask.  
" i knew you had been in anbu when you were younger-what made you go back?"  
kakashi thought about it a moment before replying.  
"they asked for my help, once i had talked with the others and heard they had been requested as well. it just felt right. besides my team has moved onto other sensei's it not like they need me anymore, it was time to move on, asuma and kurenai aren’t needed by their teams much anymore either, so it just fit."  
"were you always apart of the interrogation team?"  
kakashi shook his head, before explaining.  
"no, but after the attack they asked for my team’s assistance. my team and i do a variety of missions for the village, but i was mostly doing assassinations when i was younger"  
"that must have been hard"  
kakashi shrugged, he normally didn’t talk about his past, especially about his anbu days or his time with the fourth, but if talking about then would help the man in front of him he would manage it somehow.  
"no harder than anyone else’s i imagine"  
"i suppose not"  
the chunin trailed off, looking out the balcony door again before asking.  
"so what are the rules?"  
"rules?"  
kakashi was intrigued. iruka turned back from the window to gaze at kakashi in a ‘duh’ manner, when the jounin didn’t immediately respond iruka took it upon himself to explain what he meant.  
"yeah what am i allowed to do, what am i not allowed to do. Rules"  
ah, so that is what the teacher meant. kakashi thought a moment before speaking honestly.  
"well you have to follow the hokage’s orders of course and go to your appointments with the specialist, you have to stay with me until they reevaluate your situation, other than that i would just request you don’t try anything stupid. other than that, you can do as you please"  
iruka glanced back to the silver haired jounin, he was slightly puzzled.  
"so i can go other places?"  
"like where?"  
thinking a moment, the teacher contemplated where he would rather be, he really didn’t have anywhere else to go, he of course had his apartment, but since it was half demolished that left little for him to return too and he wasn’t even allowed to stay there at the moment so that ruled that out. still there were places around town that he liked to visit, maybe he could go there?  
" could i go to the memorial stone?"  
the jounin nodded his head, standing kakashi made his way to the door, looking over his shoulder he questioned.  
"you did mean now didn’t you?"  
iruka smiled and shrugged before standing and heading towards the door where the jounin was putting his sandals back on. iruka wasn’t about to say no to the jounin if he was offering to let him go out into the village for the fist time since his interrogation. strapping his own sandals on, he followed the jounin down the many tiers of stairs and through the different pathways of the village and making there way around debris that had fallen either from building or the results of jutsu's that had been cast during the battles. they had to take a longer route than necessary due to the damage around the village, but made it to the stone soon enough. standing before the dark stone, names etched into it from all the honorable shinobi of their village who had given their lives in service. the pair were silent a moment before kneeling before the stone. iruka said a silent prayer, opening his eyes he noticed that the silver haired nin seemed to be doing the same. not wanting to disrupt him iruka remained kneeling next to kakashi patiently waiting for the man to finish whatever it was he was saying. it was only a couple more minutes before he heard the nin move. opening his eyes he glanced up to kakashi before standing. the nin looked thoughtful as he stared at the stone before them.   
kakashi turned to face his ward after he was done silently saying hello to his teacher and teammates like he always did when visiting the stone. normally he spoke out loud, but he didn’t feel comfortable doing that with the chunin watching him.   
"ne, what do you want to do now?"  
the chunin looked back to the memorial stone, and then up to the mountain holding all of the previous hokage's.  
"when do i start therapy?"  
"tomorrow"  
"what does the hokage think this is going to accomplish?"  
looking to the man standing beside him,iruka waited for an answer to which kakashi answered.  
"she's just trying to help you"  
"shouldn’t it be my decision when or if i want it?"  
"mah shinobi life is different, if you were civilian it would be one thing but -"  
"but im a highly trained lethal shinobi with suicidal tendencies"  
kakashi blinked at what the man had just uttered, it was amusing, but he knew better than to laugh at the man’s dry humor. instead he chose to say.  
"there's that, but you also mean a lot to this village, you would be missed"  
iruka shook his head, he couldn’t believe that he would be missed, maybe the children would miss him for a time, but they would quickly move on and forget him. he had no real comrades, sure every shinobi was supposed to care for one another, but he wasn’t close to anyone. there would be no one to mourn him beside naruto, and he had no problem believing that the blonde would be able to adapt without him.   
unaware of the chunin's dark thoughts, kakashi tried to get the chunin to talk to him.  
"don’t you have something to strive for something that you have to accomplish in your life?"  
iruka looked down from the mountain, staring at the jounin for a moment iruka finally admitted.  
"i used too, a long time ago"  
"what about now, right now"  
"nope nothing's coming to mind"  
came the the sardonic response from the chunin.the silver haired jounin frowned at the chunin, he was sure that there was something that the chunin wanted, he just had to find out what it could be and use it to his advantage when trying to get the teacher to heal.  
"what about you?"  
kakashi was slightly startled by the chunin asking him the same question, but he figured turnabout was fair play.  
"i used to want to be the best shinobi in the village, i was cold and calculated-that’s probably why the third assigned me to minato. he knew i needed to learn the value of teammates."  
the chunin continued to listen to kakashi, he wasn’t used to the nin talking so much and figured he might as well enjoy his company while he could.  
"you know when the third made me take team seven i was determined to fail them, i saw them as nothing more than annoying children not worth my abilities- i trusted my anbu teammates inexplicably,but to be put in charge of some snot nosed brat? it wasn’t my style. i didn’t think i would grow to care for them the way that i do, now that they've started on their own paths all i can do is help them along the way if they'll let me. i truly hope naruto is right and that we will get sasuke back from orochimaru in time. its out of my hands now so all i can do is do my job and protect the people of konoha. i suppose i would have to say that my goal is to see naruto become hokage, see sakura surpass tsunade-sama in med skills and see sasuke returned to the village where he belongs. that’s why i keep fighting."  
to say that iruka was surprised would be an understatement, he'd never heard the ninja talk so passionately before. it was obvious that he truly cared about the children and his comrades. iruka hadn’t expected the nin to share so much with him. it was with that thought that iruka needed to know why kakashi felt like sharing so much with him.  
"why'd you tell me?"  
"you asked"  
"you didn’t have to answer"  
kakashi shrugged back at the chunin.  
"true, but were going to be spending a lot of time together, i figured you deserved to know a little bit about me, besides its only fair after you had to tell us so much about yourself"  
the comment shouldn’t of hurt like it did, but iruka felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. he hadn’t had a choice in what he revealed to kakashi and his team and the man knew that. whatever sense of guilt the man had towards learning his secrets only made iruka irritated that the man felt the need to reciprocate in some way to apologize for taking part in his torture. he didn’t like pity and that what effectively what kakashi was doing here, answering him because he felt bad for having heard all of his secrets. sighing iruka looked back to the mountain.   
"im ready to head back"  
he saw kakashi nod out of the corner of his eye and turned to leave the memorial stone, he knew kakashi would fall in step behind or catch up with him so he felt no reason to wait for the man.


	9. testing boundaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ordered to live with kakashi until he is deemed no longer a threat to himself, iruka settles in at kakashi's apartment. the two shinobi have a lot to work around, namely the elephant in the room. luckily for kakashi, iruka has no issues for calling him like he see's it. likewise iruka gets to deal with the quirks of the jounin as he sorts himself out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so...sorry about the late post, but my mom fell and hurt her knee. again. the same knee she's already had surgery on, on the same leg she's had reconstructive surgery on...so yeah. been helping her all day and trying to make sure she's not walking around too much. 
> 
> so to make up for that, i'm posting both of today's chapters one after the other. so in a minute or two after this posts another chapter should be up.

kakashi caught up easily with the chunin and the pair walked in silence together through the broken streets of konoha, iruka couldn’t help but reflect on how the village had changed over the years. the village had suffered a great loss when the third was killed by... him-but gained a strong leader in tsunade. coming back to the present, iruka was surprised to see izumo and kotetsu coming towards them iruka froze, his guardian seemed to noticed his wards sudden stop and turned to look at him curiously, following the man's gaze kakashi saw two chunin he had seen working in the missions desk before with iruka. he wasn’t sure if the chunin liked the men or had bad memories with them so he kept his guard up ready to put an end to the confrontation should iruka start to display any outward appearances of being overwhelmed by them. the two chunin had noticed them and quickly approached, the pair smiled at the sight of iruka and izumo asked.  
"yo iruka, where have you been?"  
iruka plastered a smile on his face, he knew he couldn’t blurt out that for the last two weeks he had been being tortured by ibiki and under suicide watch by a team of jounin's who also happened to be anbu and that kakashi who happened to be standing right beside him was in fact one of those anbu. inwardly he was laughing at the winding trail his mind had lead him on, externally he said in a stilted voice.  
"ano-i've been sick"  
the two chunin glanced to one another before questioning.  
"for two weeks?"  
before the teacher could answer kakashi interrupted.   
"mah, he was sick a few days, but he's been helping me with something for the hokage"  
the two chunin looked skeptically at the jounin before they latched onto his last remark.   
"for the hokage?"  
iruka nodded going along with the silver haired ninja. kotetsu and izuma seemed to take their answers in stride. iruka couldn’t tell if they actually believed kakashi, but it was izumo who spoke up.  
"ok-so we'll see you at your shift tonight? finally getting back into the swing of things."  
the man joked. well shit. iruka was about to stumbled through an awkward response when kakashi answered for him again without any hesitation in his voice as he lied skillfully.  
"sorry, he's going to be working on something with me for the next couple months"  
"months?"  
the two men said in shock, they glanced between the two shinobi as if wanting some sort of confirmation. scratching the back of his head iruka gave a cursory glance towards kakashi only to find kakashi smiling at the two chunin who were just staring at them. realizing that they were waiting for something else to be said, iruka nodded.  
"umm yeah kakashi's right were on special assignment for the hokage-im sure they'll find someone to fill my position in the meantime."  
it was kotetsu who spoke next.  
"ok-um will you still be covering your shifts at the school?"  
iruka held back the wince that wanted to show on his face, those that were used to his routine knew how much he loved the children and his teaching position. swallowing stiffly iruka shook his head.  
"no-i wont be able to do that until this assignment is done"  
the two chunin glanced to one another, they both knew how much the chunin loved the kids. its really all they could get him to talk about when he was in the mission room with them.   
"so whats your assignment? anything cool"  
izumo asked excited, kotetsu was rolling his eyes at his partner. iruka smiled at the energetic chunin.  
"sorry its confidential"  
the chunin looked disappointed but nodded. they came across enough black scrolls in the mission desk that had to go straight to the hokage. it was kotetsu who elbowed his partner and mumbled that they were going to be late. waving at iruka and kakashi they said their goodbyes and quickly jumped up to a nearby rooftop to head in the direction of the mission desk. letting out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding iruka looked at kakashi, the nin was watching him silently, no expression on his face to show iruka what he was thinking. unable to stop himself, iruka admitted.  
"that was uncomfortable"  
"you don’t like them?"  
came the curious and wary question from kakashi, iruka shook his head.  
"no its not that-i've worked with them for years, i just-i don’t know them"  
kakashi nodded his head, he'd been on plenty of missions where your partner wasn’t someone you actually knew but had to trust with your life. he followed after iruka as the teacher started down the street again, obviously intent on getting back to kakashi’s apartment and away from the prying eyes of the public. they were back at kakashi's in no time, making their way up the stairs kakashi unlocked his apartment and motioned the chunin in.  
re-entering the jounin's apartment, iruka vaguely heard kakashi shut the door. taking off his sandals he entered the hallway and stood there for a minute, he wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to do now. he heard kakashi come to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder iruka waited for some kind of instruction as to what to do. after closing the door and initiating the lock, kakashi toed off his own sandals and looked up, iruka was just standing in the hallway. shaking his head kakashi walked up behind the chunin and motioned him to keep going. iruka followed his lead and they continued down the hallway past the living room and kitchen. being gently pushed down the hallway they came to a stop when they approached a door on the left. looking over his shoulder to kakashi iruka saw the nin smile and nod. opening the door the teacher gasped. the room was stunning. it was obviously a study, a large desk was placed against the wall and scrolls were hanging from the wall. bookcases were lined up on the remaining walls filled with different books ranging from ninjitsu to taijitsu. iruka's mouth hung open, other than the hokage's office and the clan houses he didn’t think anyone had this many books. what was more surprising was that they weren’t all porn. looking behind him iruka asked.  
"what is this?"  
kakashi shrugged before stating.  
"i don’t like being bored"  
nodding his head iruka walked to the center of the room and took it all in.   
"i figured you'd get bored and knowing that you teach and all i figured you'd like to read some new topics"  
iruka dully nodded, not bothering to correct the ninja-he used to teach. instead iruka reached for a book and thumbed through it. he couldn’t believe he was given access to all of this. turning to the ninja behind him leaning against the wall he asked.  
"are you sure?"  
kakashi nodded, he didn’t have a problem with the chunin using his personal library he figured it would at least give the man something to do when he wasn’t in therapy. kakashi had no illusions that they were headed for a very bumpy road. he watched as the chunin looked through the different rows of books. being gentle with each book he took from the shelf before replacing it where it belonged.   
"why don’t you pick one out and start reading it while i fix us something to eat"  
iruka nodded and quickly found a book that he would like to lose himself in, palming the tome he followed kakashi down the hallway and back into the living room/kitchen area. finding a comfortable spot in one of the two chairs in the room, he curled his legs up underneath him and opened the front page. seeing that his charge was taken care of for the moment, kakashi turned and made his way into the adjoining kitchen. he began to rummage through his cupboards to find something to make. it was only a couple of minutes later that he felt the chunin's chakra flare out, rushing back into the room kakashi slid to a stop to see iruka trying to balance his chakra in one hand while continuing to read the instructions in his other. iruka looked up a faint smile on his face, noticing the concern in his guardians face iruka shrugged and spoke.  
"interesting book-i wanted to see if it would work"  
shaking his head at the chunin’s actions kakashi turned to go back into the kitchen but stopped long enough to say.  
"just be careful"  
he vaguely heard the chunin turn the page of the book while making a noncommittal sound from his throat. kakashi returned to the kitchen to fix something for them to eat, mindful of the chunin experimenting in his living room unsupervised the jounin quickly put together a small meal for the two and carried it into the living room only to find the chunin frowning at his hand, a small ball of chakra being held between his thumb and forefinger.  
"problem?"  
kakashi asked curiously as he set the plates down and waited for the chunin to gather his thoughts. iruka shook his head before reabsorbing the chakra and closing the book. he'd have to try again some other time. looking to kakashi he had to ask.  
"so have you copied all the jutsu’s in those books?"  
kakashi laughed while shaking his head. handing iruka his plate he sat back in the opposite chair.  
"no- i know a fair amount of them, but it would be too time consuming to try and learn them all."  
iruka tilted his head at that, he was under the assumption that kakashi could just learn the techniques with his eye, but perhaps he had that wrong after all. looking to the book in his lap iruka tried to work out why the technique hadn’t worked like the book had described it.   
"so what were you trying to do?"  
the jounin asked while daring to take a bite while the chunin was distracted. idly iruka took a bite of food before answering the jounin.  
"hmm oh, its supposed to focus your chakra into a small sphere, your supposed to feel the tingle as if you were performing a healing jutsu, but i didn’t feel anything so it must not have worked."  
nodding his head, kakashi asked again.  
"yes, but what was it supposed to do if it worked?"  
taking another bite, the chunin swallowed his food before answering the man.  
"the sphere is supposed to be able to cause your chakra to focus on a specific point in the body allowing the chakra pathways to focus on healing that particular area."  
kakashi wasn’t sure if he believed the chunin but just smiled anyways, he'd double check the book once the chunin had gone to bed. he didn’t want him learning anything dangerous that he could use against himself...granted he probably already knew techniques for that, but he didn’t wish to add to his repertoire. kakashi made a mental note to quickly scour his library for any other books that might have things that could lead to unsavory results. he was jarred from his thinking by the chunin asking him a surprising question.  
"this is good-who taught you to cook?"  
giving a genuine smile kakashi told the chunin quite proudly.  
"the fourth"  
iruka's eyes widened at the information.  
"he could cook?"  
laughing kakashi nodded.  
"yep, was determined to make sure we all ate correctly-never really worked with obito though, he had a sweet tooth a mile long. sensei was always stealing his candy"  
smiling kakashi couldn’t help but remember his old teammates. he had some good memories which he cherished, it helped to negate the nightmares. looking to the chunin he asked.  
"can you cook?"  
iruka nodded, before pondering who had taught him. smiling he told kakashi.  
"my mother taught me some, but after my parents died it was mostly the third that made sure i could take care of myself. he didn’t teach me personally-man couldn’t cook to save his life, but he had one of his assistants help me"  
kakashi laughed, it seemed that the third had truly cared for iruka, it was such a tragedy that he had died the way he had. iruka could have used his council now more than ever. allowing the chunin to finish his meal in relative peace kakashi waited for the chunin to go back to his book,but instead iruka stood up and reached out for his own plate. kakashi raised an eyebrow at the chunin and iruka huffed at him.  
" i can at least do the dishes, im not an invalid.”  
understanding the chunin’s ire at his situation and his need to feel useful, kakashi reluctantly handed over his plate, which seemed to make the man happy, iruka nodded to kakashi before heading into the kitchen to tidy up. kakashi would allow the chunin to do a little housework if it made him feel better, he always hated doing dishes, so if the teacher wanted to volunteer he wasn’t going to say no. pulling out his favorite series, he began to read, flipping the pages idly as he listened to iruka hum while he tinkered around in the kitchen. this was surprisingly pleasant. he didn’t have company that often, preferring to go to his friends house to hang out, his apartment was his sanctuary and he never wished to share it with anyone. but so far the chunin hadn’t done anything to make him regret agreeing to watch over him. kakashi had been skeptical about the whole arrangement, but didn’t wish to make one of his team take on the responsibility of the man. they were paired up and even kakashi knew the strain that could bring to their relationships. being alone meant kakashi could devote all of his time not eaten up by his shinobi duties with the chunin. hearing the sink turn off he waited for the chunin to come back out, when the teacher didn’t appear he frowned. tilting his head back kakashi called.  
"iruka?"  
there was no reply to his call of the man’s name. just what was that man doing? then like some sick joke his mind reminded him-the knife! he'd used a knife to prepare the pork, jumping out of his chair he ran into the kitchen prepared to have a battle before him if not a horrible scene.

**************************

dashing into the room he found iruka holding the knife but not doing anything, just staring at it as he dried it with a towel.  
"iruka can i have the knife?"  
he was hesitant to try and demand the man comply, if he could get the chunin to do what he asked without causing a scene it would go far better for both of them. the chunin didn’t seem to notice his presence, carefully kakashi reached out to take the knife, the chunin in front of him didn’t resist as he gently took the knife from his hands. throwing the knife on the counter he looked into the man's eyes, it was apparent that he was thinking about something very hard. and if kakashi had to guess it wasn’t anything good.   
"iruka can you hear me?"  
kakashi needed to know just what the chunin was experiencing before he got involved. he didn’t want to have to use the sharingan against the man again if he didn’t have too. iruka had almost finished with the chores in the kitchen, kakashi was apparently a very messy cook, tsking he went about cleaning all the dishes, setting the last bowl aside he reached for the next item to wash and dry when he realized he was holding a kitchen knife. at first he didn’t even realize what it was he was cleaning in the sink, simply going on autopilot while cleaning, but pulling it out of the warm water and beginning to dry it with the towel he had made iruka's mind wander. the dark part of his mind reminding him that he could do anything with this knife and kakashi would have no clue before it was most likely too late. looking down to the sharp object he swallowed hard, this was what he wanted wasn’t it? he hated this sentence, to be without his students and his shinobi duties, being coddled like a child and babysat by another. frowning iruka continued to dry the knife, he remembered the first time he tried use a knife like this.   
he'd been on his own just a couple months since the nine tails attack and had been trying to cut some meat up for a bowl of ramen when it slipped and cut his hand, he remembered the sharp pinch as the blade cut into his flesh, the warm dripping sensation as his blood flowed from the open wound. it was the first time he'd taken to examine his own blood only to find it fascinating. two weeks later his teammate died while on a mission with him, that night he tried for the first time to hurt himself. wanting more than anything to feel something beside the pain of losing his teammate, the pain of knowing he had failed and there was no way to make it better. no one noticed the cuts, simply believing he had been hurt on the same mission. from that point on he realized he could hide his developing need to harm himself so long as it coincided with missions. it was years before even the third started to notice and suspect. feeling a sudden emptiness in his hands, iruka looked down to find his hands empty of the knife he had been cleaning, jerking he looked around only to realize he wasn’t alone anymore, kakashi stood inches away from him. letting out a yelp he backed up against the counter to get some space between them.  
"you back with me?"  
kakashi asked carefully. iruka nodded holding his chest with a hand as he tried to slow his rapidly beating heart. kakashi smiled, he was glad that he didn’t have to help get iruka back into the present moment. iruka looked around for a minute before seeing the knife behind kakashi. the silver haired nin followed his gaze and proceeded to move his body in the way so iruka couldn’t see the knife. quickly apologizing for his own error in judgment.   
"i shouldn’t have left that out, im sorry"  
iruka shrugged before turning to grab the next dish and dry it as if it was no big deal. though he did pause long enough to remark.  
"i wasn’t doing anything"  
iruka muttered as he set aside the clean dish. kakashi watched the man start cleaning another dish before he chose to comment.  
"you also weren’t aware of what was going on around you"  
iruka turned to look at kakashi an unreadable expression on the chunin's face, finally it slipped to annoyance.  
"am i not allowed to think about things?"  
"i didn’t say that"  
"then what is it that i was doing that was so bad"  
sighing kakashi ignored the question at hand and started to put things away, making sure that iruka didn’t reach for the knife that he placed back in the wooden block on the counter. he would have to put that away like all the other things he had stored until he could begin to trust the chunin. once things were put into some semblance of order once more, the jounin tried to make the chunin see reason.  
" you have to understand my position iruka, the hokage is expecting me to take care of you, i cant very well let you try and hurt yourself now can i?"  
placing the last dish away kakashi turned to face the teacher. iruka was still frowning at him as he toweled off his hands, but hadn’t bothered to retort. instead iruka walked past him and back into the living room, taking a deep breath kakashi followed him, the chunin had curled back up in the chair the book once again open in his lap. re-taking his own seat, kakashi relaxed in the tense silence. it was an hour later that the chunin closed the book, setting it on the coffee table, looking into the hazel eyes examining him kakashi waited patiently. he didn’t have to wait long before the chunin spoke his mind.  
"i think i'd like to go to bed now"  
nodding kakashi stood up and was about to show iruka where he would be staying when his charge barked out.  
" your not going to be watching me while i sleep again are you?"  
kakashi glanced over his shoulder, technically he probably should sleep in the same room as the chunin to watch over him, but he also didn’t want to overcrowd the stressed man. the chunin’s rebuttal in the kitchen had given him a lot to think about, it was true that iruka had the ability to harm himself. that he had done so in the past and wished to do so still, but some trust had to be established or they would get no where.   
"kakashi?"  
realizing he had taken too long to answer the man kakashi stated.  
"depends, i'll make you a deal- i wont watch you while you sleep so long as you promise me that you wont try anything when your in your room, your room is a safe zone alright. consider it a way for you to earn my trust. so long as you stick to that, i wont change our sleeping arrangements."  
iruka frowned at the jounin, snorting at the deal he was being pllied with iruka had to retort.  
"how exactly would i hurt myself? i don’t know if you noticed but it appears the only dangerous thing to me in this entire apartment is the risk of getting paper cuts or did you think i wouldn’t notice the lack of anything sharp in this apartment?"  
smiling at the chunin's evaluation of his home, kakashi reiterated his deal.  
"promise"  
sighing iruka nodded his head.  
"alright alright i promise not to try anything in my room."  
smiling at the chunin kakashi motioned for the man to follow him. iruka trudged behind the man. it ended up that there were two bedrooms across the hall from one another. kakashi pointed to the one on the right.  
"that’s my room, this one is yours. if you need anything just come get me."  
nodding his head iruka went to enter the room when kakashi grasped his arm.  
"remember you promised, i have good hearing too so don’t try and sneak off like naruto does when he's in the hospital"  
snorting iruka shook off the mans grasp and entered the room, turning around he was about to shut the door in the smug jounins face but decided to make one more point.  
"im not a genin trying to get out of the hospital, im a fully trained shinobi trying to deal with all the crap that seems to be happening in my life. if i choose to die there is very little in fact that you can do. goodnight."  
with that iruka slammed the door on kakashi's face. smiling to himself iruka turned around to examine the room. it was rather plain, but still had a few decorations to make it homey. approaching the bed,he allowed himself to fall onto its cozy top, bouncing slightly until the bed settled. at least in here he could have a little space from being watched, kakashi wasn’t wrong that it was a ‘safe zone’. he could come here when he needed time away from the ever aware anbu he was currently living with. sighing iruka closed his eyes and willed his body to let him sleep, he could deal with all this shit tomorrow.  
kakashi remained outside the door for a moment, listening to the chunin, hearing him climb into the bed kakashi turned to enter his own room. he could only hope that he wasn’t making a horrible mistake and that the chunin would be in one piece and with any luck alive in the morning. 

***********************

blinking open his eyes iruka duly noticed that it was morning, he hadn’t even remembered drifting off to sleep, but apparently he had drifted off to sleep rather fast after closing his eyes the night before. he hadn’t even bothered to climb under the covers. sitting up, iruka looked out the window. even with all the destruction, the village was still breathtaking. deciding he might as well start the day, iruka opened his door and froze, kakashi had left the door to his room wide open presumably so he could hear the chunin if he decided to try and leave. shaking his head, the chunin walked quietly down the hallway and entered the living room to get through to the kitchen. once their he rummaged around for a minute before finding the teapot and a stash of tea. setting the kettle to boil he leaned against the stove. something was missing- he prided himself on being observant, his eyes scowled. the knife block that’s what was missing.  
figures someone like kakashi would take their ‘deal’ to heart. he’d be lucky to find anything remotely sharp in the whole damned apartment now, not that he needed to resort to hunting down a weapon in the place. just as he’d told kakashi the night prior, he could and would find a way if he so chose to do so. turning back around he took the kettle off before it could whistle and disturb the still sleeping jounin. even with being as irritated with the man as he was for his current predicament, he wasn’t so much a jerk as to wake the man. taking a cup down from the cupboards he mixed his tea in before tiptoeing down the hallway and entering the library. making sure to close the door behind him. it didn’t take long to find another book that interested him, taking a seat next to the window iruka allowed the sunlight to kiss his skin as he read about new theories on chakra control.   
kakashi couldn’t help but sigh, he had slept pretty good. even with the stress of knowing he had a suicidal ninja living with him who he was presently responsible for couldn’t put a damper on a good nights rest it would seem. knowing he couldn’t lay about in bed, kakashi got up from his bed and started to leave his room, only to freeze when he noticed the chunin's room door was open. racing into the room he didn’t find a trace of the chunin. the jounin quickly raced down the hallway, silently hoping that the chunin had just wandered into the living room. no luck, dashing into the kitchen showed no chunin, about to bolt for the front door to track down the missing chunin, he froze. things were out of place. the kettle was off the burner he normally placed it on and a small bowl that held his loose tea was on the counter. it was obvious that someone had made themselves some tea earlier in the morning, of course seeing as it hadn’t been him it left only one person to do that. iruka, but that still left the question as to where the chunin was now. then it hit him 'the library'. turning back around kakashi ran down the hallway and threw the door open in his haste to find out if his charge was still alive.  
iruka was sipping his tea when he heard heavy footfalls go racing down the hallway, smirking he couldn’t hold back a smile, after last night he didn’t feel bad about making the jounin worry a little. serves him right for taking even his kitchen knives away, he wondered how they were supposed to cook now that everything was under lock and key. shrugging iruka went back to his reading while holding his cup of tea, he was enjoying the relaxing atmosphere of lounging in the sunlight while reading. his mind no longer worried on what kakashi might be thinking about him being ‘missing’. he regretted his lack of awareness a moment later when the door crashed open, banging against the wall and startling the chunin into jumping. iruka spilled his hot tea all over himself and the book he had been holding, hissing in pain he stood and tried to brush off the hot liquid from himself before sending a scathing glare to the now present jounin.  
having burst into the room kakashi was immediately relieved to see the chunin still in his apartment, however the sound of the door slamming open must have startled the chunin terribly because the teacher jumped up in fright and proceeded to spill tea all over himself, hissing and jumping up he watched as the man tried to get the hot liquid off of himself. when that didn’t work the chunin sent the darkest glare he'd seen the man give yet his direction.   
"kuso that burns"  
the chunin muttered as he looked down to himself. scratching the back of his head, kakashi laughed a little.  
"ano sorry i didn’t mean to startle you"  
the dark glare returned before the chunin countered..  
"what did you think would happen with you slamming doors?"  
grin faltering a little kakashi didn’t know how to respond to the angry chunin, instead he moved out of the way as the man stormed past him and went down the hallway, following him kakashi winced when the door slammed in his face for the second time in less than twelve hours. kakashi had to admit he kinda deserved this one.  
"iruka-"  
there was no reply for a second,before the door was yanked open and the chunin still in tea soaked clothes growled out.  
"i don’t have any spare clothing"  
eyes widening the jounin nodded and went to fetch an extra pair of clothes from his room for the angry man. iruka stood in the doorway, waiting rather impatiently, tea dripping on the floor from his clothing. kakashi was only gone a little while but when he came back with folded clothes he seemed embarrassed before the chunin. iruka was still glaring, but he raised an eyebrow to the unusually timid jounin.  
"they might be a little big on you"  
realizing the difference in their heights and the apparent implications of the man’s clothing not fitting him right, iruka took the clothes then slammed the door in the jounin’s face again so that he could change in peace. kakashi sighed as he stared at the door once more, that was the third time it had slammed in his face. it appeared that they weren’t off to a very good start. once iruka had changed out of the wet clothes into the dry ones he couldn’t help but look down at himself. it looked like he was a child trying on his parents clothes. they hung from him in droves. kakashi was at least a head length taller than him and it clearly showed in the clothing. sighing he opened the door to find kakashi standing there waiting for him. before he could bark at the jounin kakashi spoke up.  
"we should go to your place and pick up some things"  
"you think"  
came the haughty response from the chunin. raising his arms, iruka displayed the longer sleeves hanging over his hands. kakashi smiled at him and shrugged. shaking his head iruka commented.  
"why do i have to be surrounded by tall people?"  
figuring that it was a rhetorical question kakashi didn’t bother to respond to the irate teacher. looking to the clock that hung at the end of the hallway, they had time to go to iruka’s to retrieve some clothing and get back to kakashi’s to drop off the clothing if they left now. kakashi would have to get the chunin to his first day of therapy soon after.  
"we have time to go to your place to pick up a few things if we hurry."  
iruka nodded, following kakashi to the front of the apartment and slipping on his sandals. they walked at a leisurely pace beside the jounin, passing buildings that had been demolished in the attack and ones that were still standing but would obviously need to be torn down and replaced. the progress since the attack was slow going, but it improved with each passing day. a lot of the rubble that had been blocking roads and just making the everyday commute harder was already gone from the main roads. coming to the large building of apartments, iruka started climbing the many rows of stairs. almost to his apartment on the sixth floor kakashi asked.  
"how long have you lived here?"  
glancing to the silver haired nin, iruka replied sharply.  
"for a while"  
realizing that the man apparently didn’t want to talk at the moment kakashi let it drop. reaching the door iruka leaned down and fished out the spare key he hid in a crack in the wall. kakashi raised a brow.  
"isn’t that a little obvious?"  
iruka twisted about to look at him in a dumb fashion before he questioned the man.  
"we live in a ninja village do you really think a deadbolt would keep someone out who wanted in?"  
kakashi blinked a moment before he conceded to the man’s intellect.  
"touche"  
iruka smiled as he twisted back around and unlocked the door. entering the disaster area that had once been his orderly apartment he sighed.  
"sorry about the mess-i think someones earth jutsu hit the south wall"  
nodding his head kakashi waved him off. about to take his sandals off as was typical of entering a person’s home, kakashi was stopped by iruka shaking his head to kakashi.  
"don’t bother, there’s probably broken glass and weapons strewn about"  
nodding his head kakashi released his foot and followed the chunin through the hallway, they passed a small alcove where iruka threw the keys into a bowl before coming to stand in a large open room, that was attached to an open kitchen area. iruka's place was much smaller than kakashi's but with a school teachers salary that wasn’t overly surprising. stepping over a broken picture frame holding a scroll iruka sighed. his place was a disaster. leaning over he started to pick things up when kakashi intervened.  
"ano we don’t have a lot of time, we can come back later if you would like to straighten up."  
nodding his head iruka let the scroll he had been in the process of picking up fall back to the ground and moved past the living room into what kakashi assumed was the chunin's room. it was only a couple seconds later that the chunin called out to him.  
"hey kakashi?"  
walking to the doorway of the man’s bedroom the jounin answered.  
"yeah"  
"do you mind if i bring a couple things?"  
watching the chunin stuff some neatly folded clothes into a bag the man asked.  
"like what?"  
"i have a couple scrolls i was tinkering with, mostly just teaching aids,but i'd like to finish them, one of other teachers could use them for the kids. i have some files i really should give to kotetsu or izumo-oh and then there's-"  
shaking his head kakashi cut off the chunin by saying.  
"iruka your supposed to be resting, not working"  
iruka paused in his packing to look up at the jounin. the chunin colored a bit which was a shock to the jounin before iruka admitted.  
"i don’t think i know how not to work"  
smiling kakashi asked.  
"didn’t you take leave occasionally?"  
iruka laughed at the jounin before abruptly stopping when he got a frown from the jounin. shaking his head iruka explained.  
"no, i probably have a years worth of time i could take"  
shaking his head kakashi walked forward and pulled the scroll out of the chunin's hand.  
"we can deliver the files to kotetsu and izumo and the teaching aids when your done, but that’s it."  
nodding his head iruka continued to pack his bag going over to a drawer he pulled out a small book, running back over to the bag he stuffed it in before turning around and looking around. kakashi watched amused as the chunin raced around picking up items only to set them back down and continue the process over and over again. shaking his head he looked out the window, by the sun's angle they needed to get going. although he relished being late, kakashi knew how important the therapy would be to the chunin's recovery.   
"we need to get going, we can come back after your therapy"  
turning around iruka asked.  
"how long do i have to be there?"  
kakashi shrugged, the hokage hadn’t told him how long the sessions were. nodding his head iruka zipped up the bag and came to stand in front of the jounin.   
"alright i think im ready"  
“i’ll get us back to my place faster than walking so were not late to your first appointment.”  
nodding his head iruka let kakashi put his hand on his shoulder and transport them in a flash of smoke back to the jounin’s apartment.


	10. getting to know your roommate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka starts therapy and after seeing what he's in for demands to bring some comforts back with him to kakashi's apartment. there's yet another awkward encounter with the other chunin's and iruka takes the time to ask some questions to get to know kakashi a bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter number two for today. again sorry about the late posting, but my mom really needed my help today...and probably for the next week or so until she gets into the doctor to get her knee looked at. posts might be late, but i WILL post everyday unless something really goes sideways for us.

reappearing in his living room kakashi steadied the chunin as he wobbled from the transportation jutsu. once he got his feet, iruka quickly ran the bag back to his temporary room at kakashi's before coming back to the jounin and nodding. they were gone in another flash of smoke.  
reappearing outside the konoha hospital he let go of the teachers shoulder and started forward. when he noticed iruka wasn’t following him, kakashi turned to see what was holding the man up. the chunin was looking up at the sign of the hospital  
"iruka"  
nodding his head the chunin caught up with him, they entered and kakashi pulled out a slip of paper to give to the attending nurse at the desk. she glanced at the paper and nodded before instructing the jounin on where to go. coming back to stand beside iruka he pointed down the hall. walking down the white hallways iruka began to glance around as if he expected a hidden enemy to jump out at any moment. kakashi simply watched the man, prepared to stop him from running if that’s what the man decided to do. coming to the right door kakashi opened the door and waited for iruka to go in. the teacher froze for a moment before lowering his head and walking through like a chastised child. following behind the chunin they were greeted by a kind elderly woman who told iruka to sit wherever he felt comfortable. glancing to kakashi, iruka waited until the man nodded before doing what the woman had initially asked. finding a seat in one of the cushy chairs in the room he glanced around. the woman smiled to iruka before glancing to kakashi and stating rather bluntly.  
"all sessions are classified and personal, therefore only the patient is allowed in the room during that time. you can return to collect him in a hour"  
kakashi nodded, putting his hand on iruka's shoulder, he felt the tense muscles beneath his gloved hand. giving what he hoped was encouragement kakashi squeezed the chunin’s shoulder before heading for the door.  
"i'll return in an hour then"  
he waved as he left the room, closing the door on the way out. staring into the eyes of a stranger iruka couldn’t help but hug his arms around his chest. he knew this wasn’t going to be pleasant, he didn’t want to be here in the first place.  
"so iruka how do you feel today"  
sighing he looked to the ceiling, the first thing he noticed was that there weren’t any convenient cracks for him to count.   
‘well shit’

********

in a flash of smoke kakashi appeared before the hokage, smiling behind his mask he greeted her.  
"yo"  
she ignored the jounin’s typical greeting and got straight to the point.  
"kakashi, im guessing that iruka is in his first session or you wouldn’t be here bothering me.”  
the jounin nodded his head and reported to the hokage.  
"just dropped him off, escorted him in and made sure he was all comfy"  
the woman snorted at his rendition of the morning as she took a sip of sake like it wasn’t way too early to be drinking.  
"i highly doubt he's comfortable right now, but thank you for escorting him in. how have things been with him living with you? i realize it’s only been one night, but sometimes that’s all it takes to get a feel for how things are going to go."  
he watched amused as the hokage took a drink of sake while throwing a couple papers to the floor before he answered her.  
"as well as can be expected. there is no doubt in my mind that given an opportunity he will harm himself,but we have settled into an uneasy truce at my place."  
nodding her head as she multi tasked, the hokage warned the man in front of her.  
"he most likely is not going to be in a good mood after therapy today, especially because he doesn’t wish to be there in the first place."  
"mah i've hid all the dangerous stuff in my apartment with seals, unless he plans to give himself a million paper cuts we should be safe."  
looking up she gave the jounin a perplexed look about his ‘paper cuts’ comment before she smiled. leave it to kakashi to find some way to make the situation lighter. she was sure that the chunin would be able to be rehabilitated given enough time and the right people around him. the real problem was making sure such time was given and things weren’t pushed too far too soon. tsunade was mildly surprised when the jounin offered up more information without her prompting him.  
"so far he's been behaving himself pretty well, we’ve had a few arguments, but really the only thing that has me concerned is that he doesn’t seem to be able not to work. we went to his apartment to pick up some supplies and he started going on about dropping off reports to some chunin, and delivering some teaching aids to the school."  
shaking her head she put her chin in her hand.  
"im afraid your going to have to get used to that, iruka’s always been something of a workaholic, the third wrote at length that iruka once showed up to work with a high fever delusional out of his mind and refused to leave until they gave the kids their test for the day. he ended up spending three days in the hospital after they assured him that the test was taken care of."  
laughing under his breath kakashi couldn’t believe the length the chunin would go to for his students. having to ask the dreaded question not only for his own curiosity, but for iruka’s sake. kakashi asked.  
"will he ever be allowed to teach again?"  
the hokage sighed as she contemplated her answer to the man who was watching her astutely.  
"there are a lot of contributing factors to that, he needs to be free from suicidal actions for close to year before the council will allow him to teach children with sharp objects again. their afraid he might break while in front of the children, but the council is against him teaching again anyways so there is little chance of that working out. his best option is to return as an active shinobi, but to return to active duty he is going to have to start with low level missions to begin with which im sure will not be well accepted by him. the council is pressing to use his abilities for the better of the village,but i fear that might push him over the edge. his need to help people instead of hurt them could put himself and his comrades in danger if he's promoted. i'm holding them off for now, they want him to finish therapy, but once that’s done there's no way to gauge if he is truly rehabilitated without giving him a chance to prove himself.to be blunt were between a rock and a hard place with him right now"  
kakashi nodded his head, he knew it wasn’t going to be an easy path for the chunin, but hearing that the council wanted to use the chunin as a weapon made him shudder. iruka was too kind in his mind for the realities of battle. he was sure that it would be better if they just allowed him to continue teaching his students. glancing to the clock on the wall, it was almost time to go and pick up the chunin from his first therapy. noticing the man’s distraction the hokage commented.  
"you should keep our conversation to just us, i don’t think iruka would take things well if he knew what the council wanted of him."  
nodding his head kakashi wasn’t about to broach that subject with the chunin until he was sure it wouldn’t result in a suicide attempt.   
"good, you should try and get him to socialize with others-he needs to create some new bonds, i don’t care who with, but he needs more connections than just his previous students. especially since he wont be around the children now."  
scratching his mask covered face, kakashi thought about how he was going to go about that.   
"that could be a little tricky-with his history and all"  
"no one besides your group of anbu know about his connection to orochimaru"  
waving his hand kakashi explained.  
"not that-though that might be one of the reasons he distances himself from people. he seems pretty uncomfortable around his own class structure from what i’ve seen. it could just be his past getting in the way but either way i don’t exactly have a in with many chunin's and im not sure how he would feel hanging out with the same people who watched his interrogation."  
taking a sip of her sake the hokage thought about it for a second before speaking.  
"that might be so, but he at least has a connection with all of you through his previous students. you can gain his trust over time im sure."  
bowing to the hokage kakashi excused himself to go and get iruka from his first session.the woman waved him off and in a flash of smoke the jounin was gone.

*******

arriving back at the hospital entrance kakashi quickly made his way back to the doorway that he had walked iruka through an hour prior. leaning against the wall he could vaguely hear muffled voices on the inside before the door was opened and the elderly woman escorted iruka out into the hall. upon seeing the waiting jounin she nodded her head and returned to her office. he waited for the door to shut before turning to the chunin to ask him how it went, only to have to jog to catch up with said chunin. before he could ask.  
"how was-"  
"lets go"  
the tone of voice the chunin used didn’t leave much room for argument about how the chunin felt about his first session. so kakashi kept his brisk walk beside the chunin who was quickly making his way out of the hospital. iruka paused once he was outside, letting the sun hit his face. taking a deep breath he let it out. iruka knew kakashi was standing beside him,but he was thankful that the jounin wasn’t asking any questions, at least not yet. instead of letting the silence hang between them, iruka asked.  
"can we go back to my place for a few things?"  
"sure"  
iruka felt the nin place his hand on his shoulder and they disappeared only to reappear inside the nin's apartment. after getting his footing back from the long transportation jutsu iruka stepped away from kakashi. taking a look around iruka sighed. it was gonna take forever to clean up the mess the battles had caused. he wasn’t even sure if his building was salvageable to be truthful. part of the western side of the building had collapsed. knowing that there was nothing more he could do until the building was either repaired or ordered for demolition. iruka figured he might as well start somewhere and turned to kakashi, the nin was glancing around the chunin's apartment.  
"make yourself at home, im gonna try and clean up some of this mess"  
"i can help"  
turning back around he regarded the silver haired nin carefully. he wasn’t sure if kakashi was volunteering because he was bored, because he cared, or because he wanted to make sure iruka didn’t find something to harm himself with. frowning a little iruka motioned to a pile of scrolls and books that had fallen off of his small bookcase. kakashi nodded his head and knelt down to start gathering the spilled items. turning around, iruka started to pick up some pens and pencils off of the floor to place back on his small desk against the wall. he was almost done and turned to tell kakashi he was going to go into his bedroom when he saw the nin looking at something. approaching he peered around the larger mans form to see what had caught his attention. it was his original teams photo from when he was a genin. it showed him when he was a kid with his two teammates and their sensei orochimaru. kakashi glanced up to him and started to hand him the photo, iruka gently took the broken frame in hand making sure not to damage the photo inside. he'd have to find a replacement frame.   
"thanks"  
kakashi nodded and watched as iruka carried the photo over to his desk and put the picture inside a book so it wouldn’t get wrinkled. kakashi was idly confused as to why iruka would keep the picture considering all the pain orochimaru had brought, but he figured it wasn’t his place to judge. instead the jounin asked.  
"were you close with your teammates at any time?"  
iruka continued to stare at the wall in front of him, his back to the jounin.  
"at one time, we were like brothers-that’s probably the only reason why i actually fulfilled kairu's request"  
kakashi’s mind immediately jumped back to the interrogation and what all iruka had said about his teammates. kairu had to be the teammate iruka had killed upon the man’s request.  
"that must have been difficult for you"  
he watched iruka shrug his shoulders and frowned, either the chunin just didn’t want to talk about it anymore or he didn’t want to reveal how he had truly felt about the subject. whether it was good or bad kakashi wasn’t sure. though it did leave a lingering doubt as to whether the teacher had enjoyed killing his teammate. just how dangerous was this man? knowing he wouldn’t get any answers by staring at the back of the man, kakashi chose to ask.  
"where do you want to clean up next?"  
iruka turned and moved to go down the hallway and into his bedroom, kakashi trailing behind him. entering his bedroom, iruka took a look around, it was just as he had left it two weeks ago, the bed a mess as he had been running late to get to his post only to be stopped by the group of anbu in his living room. heading over to his dresser where a variety of objects had fallen over he began to straighten up. putting dirty clothes in his hamper, closing his closet and drawers as he went around the room. never paying any mind to the ninja leaning against the doorway. kakashi watched the chunin race around cleaning his room. occasionally kakashi saw the man tilt his head as iruka would pick something up shake his head and throw it into a pile on his bed. kakashi tensed when iruka came upon a weapons pouch which had been kicked under his bed. he was ready to intervene if he had too, but wanted to see what the teacher would do.

iruka was pulling the items he had kicked under the bed during the last week he had been in his apartment. his fingers coming in contact with what he knew to be a weapons pouch. snagging up the item, he fished it out from under his bed and looked at it. he could tell there were kunai in the pouch and knowing him they were undeniably sharp. he always kept his equipment in good repair. glancing to the weapons pouch in his hand iruka thought a moment about what to do with it. he knew he wouldn’t be allowed to keep it, it was too much of a risk in everyone’s eyes for him to have anything sharp. how people could get stuck up on something as simple as a knife was beyond him, with all the jutsu’s in the world a knife was rather crude in comparison. iruka assumed it was because it was a physical representation of someone wanting to end their life that made others so discontent with suicidal people having weapons. iruka knew there were plenty more weapons he would need to put away before they could leave and he wasn’t sure how his guardian was going to respond to that. leaning back onto his heels iruka threw the pouch onto his bed and leaned back down to get the rest of the stuff stashed there. once he was done cleaning out from underneath his bed the chunin straightened up and cracked his back. 

looking to the piles of stuff he had on his bed he glanced to his guardian before reaching for the weapons pouch again. iruka saw out of the corner of his eye that kakashi had flinched and subtly taken a step away from the door. he paid him no more attention as he opened the pouch glanced to see what was in it before taking it over to one of the drawers in his dresser, he moved some clothes around before he stuffed it under a pile of shirts. shutting the drawer iruka returned to the pile of items on his bed. he gathered up a pile of things that were obviously broken and threw them in the trash by his bed as if he hadn’t just been playing with dangerous weapons in front of his nervous anbu guard.   
kakashi watched the chunin pick the weapon pouch back up off his bed and tensed up, he wasn’t sure what the chunin was up too, but when iruka only put the bag away in a dresser kakashi relaxed against the wall. he observed iruka going about his job of straightening up his room, once the man seemed pleased with himself he nodded before going to walk past him. iruka only paused long enough to say under his breath.  
" you look tense kakashi-san"  
frowning after the chunin who had just taunted him, kakashi followed the man back into the main room of the mans apartment. iruka looked a little lost as to what he was supposed to do now. most of the mess was now contained and the rest would be dependent on whether he would be allowed to return to live here again. everything seemed to be up in the air right now, he wasn’t sure how to feel especially after his first visit with his therapist.  
"almost done?"  
looking to the jounin he nodded his head.  
"not much more i can do-we still don’t know which buildings are gonna have to be torn down"  
"true, but the damage didn’t appear to be that bad on this side"  
"yeah but if the internal structure was damaged they'll order it torn down anyways. i really would hate to have to move again"  
raising an eyebrow kakashi was curious as to why this would bother the chunin so much.  
"why?"  
"i hate moving, been forced to move all over the village numerous times-this place was starting to feel like home"  
"why did you have to move around so much?"  
"lots of reasons, damage to buildings, mizuki, sensei, the third wanting me closer, wanting to be closer to the school.-"  
iruka trailed off, he knew he was probably just rambling at kakashi, he didn’t realize that the man was keeping track of all he had said so far. shrugging to himself iruka approached kakashi and told him he was ready to go. not bothering to argue with the chunin, kakashi placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and they disappeared in a puff of smoke.  
they reappeared just inside the entrance way of kakashi's apartment, where they toed off their sandals before making their way to the living room. iruka diverted away from kakashi to find what was quickly becoming 'his spot' in the room. sitting in the chair he allowed himself to decompress for the first time since this morning. kakashi left the chunin alone instead choosing to go into the kitchen and prepare some tea for them. he figured the chunin could use a break.   
it wasn’t long before iruka heard kakashi come back into the room, he didn’t bother to open his eyes until he heard something being set on the table next to him. opening an eye he regarded the silver haired nin with suspicion. when all he got was a smile and nod towards the table he turned his head to the side only to smile at the sight of a hot cup of tea. taking the tea in hand he inhaled sharply to enjoy the smell of the relaxing brew before taking a tentative sip. putting his cup back down on the table.  
"your psychic"  
he heard the nin laugh under his mask. kakashi had taken his seat and was enjoying his own cup of tea. it had been a while since he had company while enjoying the simple things in life.   
"i've been accused of that many times by naruto, but im afraid its not true"  
this time it was iruka's turn to laugh.  
"i can only guess at what you did to make him think that"  
"mah, all i did was teach him a lesson, that im sure he wont soon forget"  
the teacher snorted, while taking another sip of his tea.  
"and what did he do to deserve such a lesson?"  
"he tried to steal my icha icha for the 30th time in a single day, i had to teach him to leave other peoples property alone"  
the teacher guffawed at the copy nin's explanation of things.  
"your porn? you decided to teach naruto a lesson because he was trying to steal your porn? why did you have it when around children in the first place?"  
kakashi shrugged before admitting.  
"i always carry it with me"  
rolling his eyes, iruka wasn’t sure why he was asking but he needed to know.  
"any particular reason?"  
"i get bored"  
"your supposed to be teaching not reading and especially not reading that."  
kakashi waved his hand at the teacher, causing iruka's forehead to pinch together in annoyance.   
" i taught them plenty-it was really a matter of if they were listening."  
iruka smiled at that, he knew how naruto had a hard time paying attention if the subject wasn’t to his fascination. he wondered how kakashi had managed with the blonde haired boy.  
"im sure they were difficult in their own ways, do you ever wish the third hadn’t made you take a team?"  
kakashi wasn’t prepared for that question but swallowed hard before answering.  
"right after everything happened with sasuke-i did, but seeing how much sakura and naruto have grown makes me feel proud to have been their sensei even if it was only for a little while."  
smiling iruka took a sip of tea, before revealing.  
"he was always complaining how you were late and read that book in front of them."  
kakashi nodded his head, he had mostly done that to aggravate his students. those who knew him from anbu knew he was always on time when it counted. of course he wasn’t about to give that secret away, it would ruin his reputation.   
"you should give it a try-its a very interesting series"  
iruka blushed before shaking his head quite dramatically. the copy ninja seemed to think his embarrassment was amusing because he was obviously laughing with his eye. iruka couldn’t help but make a plea to the jounin.  
"i just hope jyraiya doesn’t corrupt him"  
the copy nin laughed at the teacher's desperate announcement.  
"mah i think naruto has a good sense of character in people. he's made quite a few friends over the years even with people who could be his competition for his dream of being hokage, i doubt a little thing like jyraiya's book's would sway him away from that."  
"i hope your right"  
setting his empty cup on the table iruka replied when the man asked if he wanted another cup, shaking his head iruka thanked the nin again for the cup of tea and relaxed back in his chair. it was silent only a moment before iruka asked the ninja.  
"do you think you'll take another team?"  
kakashi shook his head, not bothering to think about the question posed to him.   
"i doubt it, although im glad i did, i don’t think i want to go through being in charge of another group of brats, besides i don’t think anyone could top team seven"  
iruka chuckled, he was used to hearing the jounin moan about their students. they were elite shinobi after all and didn’t quite know how to handle the younger generation.  
"how do you do it?"  
"do what?"  
iruka tilted his head to the side in confusion.  
"teach all those brats all the time?"  
snorting iruka clarified for the jounin.  
"they're not brats, their children. they just have a lot to learn. sure some misbehave or lash out at people from time to time, but for the most part the children just want to learn"  
"yeah, but how do you deal with what twenty of them at a time, i could barely handle three"  
iruka laughed and responded in kind.  
"try 25, and you haven’t been doing it for years. when i first started as a teacher i was a wreck, i didn’t know how to get them to listen to me, to do their homework, and treat their colleagues with respect. you learn, just like with anything else it just takes time."  
kakashi just shook his head before commenting.  
"i bow before your wisdom"  
iruka laughed at the jounin, he couldn’t help but reply.  
" ah yes, my infinite wisdom in how to rear children. im sure i could teach you a few things"  
before he could stop himself kakashi blurted out.  
"im sure you could"  
iruka blushed again, much to the jounin’s amusement. it seemed that it was pretty easy to make the younger man blush, and he enjoyed making the man uncomfortable by mentioning crude things. he was about to continue harassing the man when there was a knock on his door. twisting his head around to look at the door kakashi raised a brow, he wasn’t expecting anyone. there was also the fact that if anyone really wanted him it would most likely be his team who would just pop inside the apartment if they felt like it. personal boundaries really went out the window once you were in anbu. looking to iruka found the man shrugging his shoulders in a similar befuddlement. sighing kakashi got up and approached the door, getting to it before the person on the other side had a chance to knock again. his one visible eye widened when he saw kotetsu and izumo. two people who kakashi could admit to never having at his doorstep before.  
"hello?"  
kakashi said in a curious manner, the two chunin looked a little confused to see him, but asked anyways.  
"is iruka here?"  
kakashi nodded, but didn’t say anything more. finally kotetsu sighed and asked.  
"can we talk to him?"  
kakashi shrugged and called over his shoulder.  
"iruka someone's here to see you"  
kakashi heard the chunin approach behind him and opened the door wide enough for the teacher to be able to see their guests. iruka raised a brow when he saw his fellow chunin.   
"umm hi?"  
kakashi took notice to iruka’s form tensing a bit at the sight of his fellow chunin and once again watched the interactions between the men carefully. the two nin's in question looked to one another like they couldn’t believe that the nin was actually there. it was izumo who broke out of his stupor first.  
"the hokage said you had the files we needed and suggested we get them from you-she said we'd find you here-why are you here?"  
kotetsu rubbed his bandaged face before coughing into his hand.  
"not your business"  
izumo glanced to his partner a glare on his face at being rebuked for his open curiosity. iruka couldn’t help but smile at the older chunin. izumo was the more open one of the two and was not afraid to butt into peoples business where kotetsu would at least wait until information was offered before demanding answers to things. ignoring the question that was posed to him, iruka stated  
"i have the files, i'll be right back."  
running off to retrieve the files he had put in his bag earlier in the morning he left the chunin's in kakashi's care. there was a long silence after iruka ran off before izumo asked.  
"so whatcha been up too kakashi-san?"  
raising a brow at the nosy man, he was about to reply rather curtly to the chunin that it wasn’t his business, when iruka came running back a folder in his arms.  
"ok here it is, i labeled all the parts that need signatures and highlighted what needs to be changed. make sure the hokage knows that the revisions she asked for are on the last page and that i made sure-"  
the chunin’s waved iruka off, they were used to the chunin's fanaticism with his work. iruka frowned before kotetsu explained.  
"we know you finished it- your always on top of your assignments and the hokage wouldn’t have sent us if you didn’t have the files ready, she said she spoke with kakashi earlier today and he mentioned the files, that’s how she knew to send us."  
"oh"  
iruka was a little taken aback. he didn’t know that kakashi had spoken with the hokage today, he figured the man had found a tree and read porn while he was in therapy. glancing to the man he saw kakashi smiling. frowning at the jounin iruka handed the folder over to the two chunin and waited for them to leave, when they didn’t immediately turn around he asked.  
"was there something else?"  
the pair blinked a moment before shaking their heads, izumo once more taking the lead to ask.  
"hmm oh no, just why are you working over here and not at your place?"  
iruka knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid their curiosity forever so he prepared to tell them he was living with the jounin temporarily, if only to get them to go away when kakashi responded without any hesitation.  
"his apartment got trashed in the attack so he's staying with me until it gets repaired."  
the two chunin looked to one another before looking back at the two men in the doorway. finally it was kotetsu who grabbed his partners arm and said they needed to go return the file to the hokage and that they would see the chunin later. once the door was closed, iruka sighed, he really hated having to lie to people even though he was really good at it by now. iruka was grateful the jounin had been the one to tell them instead of himself, he was afraid he would say something he wasn’t supposed to.  
seeing the chunin instantly relax once the door was shut, kakashi reflected on what the hokage had said to him earlier in the day. iruka needed to start making connections to tie him to the village again, to give him something to focus on besides all the bad memories that plagued him. if his interaction with the two chunin he worked with were anything to go by this was going to be harder than originally thought.  
"thank you"  
hearing the teacher thank him, kakashi nodded his head and followed the chunin back into the living room. retaking their seats they sat in silence for a moment before kakashi spoke to the chunin.  
"you know you didn’t have to answer any of their questions right?"  
iruka shrugged, to him it didn’t seem like an option.  
"their just curious i guess-im on call at the missions desk a lot so their used to coming to my place with files for me to overview them. it would make sense that this would seem odd to them."  
kakashi ignored the mans explanation instead choosing to ask.  
"do you ever take a day off?"  
smiling iruka shook his head before reminding the jounin.  
"having almost a years worth of vacation time saved up would lead me to say, i guess not- i like being busy"  
kakashi shook his head at the chunin  
"don’t you work yourself too hard though?"  
"maybe, but it helps the village"  
the way iruka explained it seemed to make kakashi believe that the man was willing to yank his own heart out of his own chest if it would ‘help’ someone. shaking his head at the man, the jounin tried a different approach.  
"if you work yourself too hard though, how will you be able to help when your out of commission because of stress or injury."  
iruka looked at the man for a moment before dryly responding.  
"your one to talk, naruto has told me all about your trips to the hospital from chakra exhaustion"  
kakashi blinked a moment before chuckling and saying in an embarrassed tone.  
"ah, he told you that huh?"  
nodding his head iruka waited for the jounin to try and argue with him now.  
"he's told me a lot of things"  
iruka emphasized the word ‘lot’. laughing as he scratched the back of his head uncertainly kakashi looked away instead of enduring the calculating gaze of the chunin a crossed from him. iruka smiled at him before waving him off.  
"don’t worry i wont go around telling people your trade secrets. but i should warn you naruto was telling me about his latest plans to de-mask you"  
shaking his head kakashi replied.  
"he never gives up, he's determined to see my face."  
"he doesn’t like a mystery, he wants to know everything he can. you should be used to people wanting to know what you look like by now ne?"  
nodding his head kakashi continued.  
"oh yes, but its always fun to foil their attempts, its no different with naruto."  
smiling iruka had to ask.  
"have you ever taken it off for someone?"  
"only a few times"  
"they must have been pretty special people if they got the opportunity to see the elusive face of the copy ninja."  
kakashi made a face at the nickname he was given before admitting to the man.  
"they were"  
tilting his head to the side iruka laughed and asked.  
"if the hokage ordered you to take it off would you have to do it since your anbu?"  
kakashi scowled back at the chunin.  
"that would be a cheap shot on her part"  
laughing iruka kicked his feet a little like a kid would do.  
"ha you would have to wouldn’t you"  
sighing kakashi nodded his head.  
"oh man that’s great"  
"you are far too amused by that"  
kakashi said dryly as he watched the amused chunin laugh in his chair.  
"i cant help it, i've always wanted to know what it was like"  
waving his hand about kakashi knew he would probably regret what he was about to say.  
"go ahead-ask away"  
iruka's eyes widened, he couldn’t believe the freedom kakashi was giving him.  
"really?"  
"sure why not, you already know the most important part, might as well let you know how everything works- i cant tell you about my missions so don’t ask. however, i can tell you how some of it works"  
iruka nodded to kakashi before thinking a moment on what he wanted to know the most. kakashi smirked under his mask as the chunin bit his lip and was obviously thinking hard on what he wanted to ask the most. he waited patiently for iruka to organize his thoughts before the chunin said.  
"well i can guess that you've been an anbu for a while, but how long have you been one?"  
"i joined anbu before i was a part of my team, i was chunin by the time our team was formed under the fourth. after my teammates died and then the nine tails attack...i worked under the fourth until his passing before being under the thirds command for some time. the third decided i needed to take team seven- i think i know what his intentions were and he was correct in assuming that i needed a change of pace for a while. it wasn’t until after the loss of sasuke and the fights with orochimaru and sand that the hokage asked me to return to my anbu duties."  
iruka listened intently, he was just happy that he was getting to learn anything about the mysterious man, but to find out about the anbu at the same time, it was truly a special occasion.   
" was it hard-being so much younger than everyone else?"  
"the way i was back then, i didn’t really notice. i eventually earned everyone's respect and at the time that was all i thought mattered."  
iruka nodded his head, he could remember being isolated because of being an orphan and then being under orochimaru's care and being feared by the other kids his age. he could relate to the man sitting a crossed from him.   
" did you always want to be anbu?"  
kakashi nodded his head.  
"seemed like the only option for me really, i wanted to be the best and didn’t want anyone getting in my way."  
"you probably didn’t take being paired up with the fourths team too well then did you?"  
kakashi chuckled a bit as he shook his head.  
"no not my finest moment. its the only time i lashed out at the third, i didn’t want to be held back by some kids who couldn’t throw a kunai straight-he quickly put me back in my place and didn’t leave room for any argument. i met my team the next day"  
iruka smiled at kakashi.  
"you spoke back to the hokage huh?"  
scratching the back of his head kakashi nodded.  
"yeah, he just smiled at me and then proceeded to trounce me to the ground to prove a point. eating dirt has a way of making one reevaluate their position in life."  
iruka laughed, the third was known to be pretty pacifistic, but if you threatened something he loved or were blatantly cocky he wouldn’t hesitate to knock you down a peg or two. iruka had experienced the same thing with the third when he was being watched over by the man.  
" i can imagine he did that to you regardless of your station, he didn’t hesitate to do the same to me either."  
kakashi smiled at the chunin. it seemed they had more in common than he thought was possible.  
" have you always had the same anbu mask?"  
"yep, you only get assigned one."  
iruka tilted his head to the side before asking a touchy question.  
"what do they do when someone dies?"  
kakashi shrugged before answering.  
"they either retire the mask if the anbu was well known or replace it with another animal"  
nodding his head iruka thought a moment before asking.  
"what about team members, is it like a genin team where you set in stone?"  
"somewhat, you normally stay with the same people just because they pair you with people who fit your fighting style, but if its a special mission they might change it up to ensure that the mission goes of without a hitch"  
iruka nodded his head before clarifying with the jounin.  
"so your normally with asuma, kurenai, genma and raidou"  
"yep"  
iruka smiled he still couldn’t fathom how all of this had happened. he understood their taking him for the interview, but him discovering who the anbu were and them not killing him for it or altering his memories was just beyond belief. here he was having a light hearted conversation about things that no one was supposed to talk about.  
"ano wont you get in trouble for telling me all of this."  
kakashi smiled at the teacher.  
"nah, they put your name on the list"  
"list?"  
iruka asked warily. kakashi smirked before informing him.  
"of people who know people's identities, there are a few positions within the village that are allowed to know the identities of anbu. the hokage deemed that you weren’t a threat to revealing us so she let it slide."  
nodding his head iruka couldn’t believe it. he was now on some secret list to let him talk to anbu.  
"do you ever talk with the anbu about your work?"  
"about our missions, not really, unless something interesting happens its all pretty standard stuff for us now. we do talk about the kids and what we do in our free time though."  
standing up suddenly kakashi motioned the chunin to follow him. iruka did after starting with little surprise to the request, he wasn’t sure what the ninja was up too but if it pertained to their current conversation he was game. sure enough they entered kakashi's room and came to a dark wooden dresser, kakashi unsealed the drawers and opened the top to show his displayed anbu gear. iruka peered in fascination.  
"go ahead"  
glancing back to kakashi only to receive a nod of approval iruka allowed himself to indulge in his curiosity. reaching in iruka picked up the wolf mask carefully, it was made from a very tough material as it had to stand up to a lot of abuse. it was so smooth, like porcelain, but he knew it wasn’t that fragile. placing the mask back in the box he was rather surprised when kakashi pulled open the second drawer to reveal a anbu grade katanna.  
"do you use it?"  
"yeah, its come in handy plenty of times"  
running his fingers down the engraved sheath that was wrapped in the traditional design of their village iruka looked up to the jounin and smiled.  
" you hide it in plain sight?"  
kakashi chuckled before stating.  
"its the best place isn’t it? no one will suspect something so out in the open. besides its sealed, no one can open it but me or another anbu."  
shaking his head, iruka told the jounin quite bluntly.  
"if naruto ever finds out you better keep him away from that- he'll take that seal as a challenge"  
laughing kakashi closed the drawers securing it once again before making his way out of his bedroom. iruka took one last look at the box and followed after the man.


	11. getting to know your roommate pt 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> its kakashi's turn to ask some questions to his new roommate. iruka gets to attend another therapy session with more drastic results than his previous session and kakashi gets some time with his team while waiting for the chunin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so again a late post, but this is kinda cause its fourth of july in america and I went with my family to see other family. however, since its fourth of july and even though im not the kind to care about that, i decided to reward my faithful followers by giving you all a little treat. instead of fireworks, cause yeah i cant give those out to you...how about four chapters in one day? sound good? thought so. the next three chapters will be up in the next few minutes so make sure you catch up on everything before i post again tomorrow. 
> 
> happy 4th of july.

"we should make dinner its getting rather late"  
iruka nodded and followed the jounin into the kitchen for them to figure out what they wanted to try and make. it wasn’t very long and they were seated once more in the living room. thinking for a moment iruka suddenly looked at kakashi and just watched him for a moment. kakashi was reading while eating so as to keep his face covered at the same time. sensing that he was being watched kakashi lowered the book after fixing his mask back in place so he could ask.  
"problem?"  
iruka shook his head before answering, finally telling kakashi what he had been thinking.  
"alright im giving you a pass"  
raising an eyebrow to the chunin kakashi asked.  
"a pass?"  
iruka nodded his head.  
"yep, go ahead and ask anything you want, you answered my questions its only fair i do the same"  
ah, so that’s what the chunin meant. kakashi was wary of how to use this ‘pass’ he’d been given. after all that had happened in the interrogation he had plenty of questions, but was unsure how far he could push things with the chunin. as if the chunin could sense his worries, iruka spoke up once more.  
"one condition though"  
"alright"  
"it stays between us, i have no doubt that you'll be reporting to the hokage about everything i do or don’t do, but this information is off the record"  
nodding his head kakashi understood.  
"of course-so anything huh?"  
the chunin nodded his head. he knew that the jounin could most likely come up with plenty of things he didn’t want to talk about, but after the jounin had shared so much with him, iruka just couldn’t not give him some answers back.  
"alright-lets see, why was your team comprised of all boys? that never happens."  
iruka was a little shocked by such a timid question, but quickly shook the surprise off and answered the man.  
"that school year there were fewer girls so they were forced to pair us together."  
nodding his head kakashi decided to test the water. he didn’t truly believe that the chunin meant anything.  
"whats the first thing orochimaru taught you"  
when the chunin didn’t say anything for a minute kakashi was about to apologize when the chunin spoke first. after swallowing stiffly and thinking a moment iruka found his voice to say.  
"umm lets see-he taught us the normal replacement jutsu of course, but there was also a variation to it that allows the user to replace themselves with an exploding tag"  
eyes widening, kakashi was amazed. that truly showed just how messed up orochimaru was, teaching brand new genin how to blow people up when they didn’t even know how to walk up tree's or stay afloat on water.  
"did the hokage know about that?"  
iruka snorted back at the shocked jounin.  
"oh hell no, you think orochimaru was going to go around town saying how he was teaching jounin level techniques to ten year olds? he was not a stupid man"  
kakashi nodded his head in defeat, the chunin had a valid point there.  
"no i suppose not, i know you were young, but did you ever suspect something was wrong with him?"  
shaking his head, iruka thought about it a moment before responding.  
"it wasn’t until he nearly was caught that i started really seeing things as they were, seeing that things didn’t match up. of course when my first teammate died in the mission there were some things that bothered me, but sensei was able to explain most of it away in some crazy logic of his that just had a way of making sense. i was just really naive, i believed in my sensei, i thought he could do no wrong."  
nodding kakashi pushed further.  
"like what?"  
iruka knew that to anyone outside of the situation, it would seem obvious what had been going on, but he was just so young back then and hadn’t known what to do when he had finally wanted to tell someone. settling his thoughts iruka answered the waiting man.  
" when my teammate died on that mission...after the enemy nin attacked us, i was covered in blood, practically blind because of it and could only make out blurs as the ninja surrounded us. my teammate-he was always a cocky person, thought he could take on the world and no one could touch him. he tried to take on ninja that were so far above us in skill that it wasn’t even funny and he paid dearly for it. the kunai that hit him, must have punctured a lung because he started coughing up blood and making this horrible wheezing sound when he breathed. i tried to help stop the blood flow, and i knew better than to remove the kunai. he was scared and just wanted the damn thing out and i couldn’t stop him in time. sensei arrived just a few minutes later, sensei easily took care of the other ninja and came to aid us. our third teammate was with him when we had gotten separated, so he was safe. sensei tried to tend to me first most likely because he knew that my teammate was dying, but i forced him to take a look at him anyways. sensei was angry with me for a long time after that. he of course was right and there was nothing we could do for him, but watch him suffocate on his own blood. sensei on some level knew that more ninja would come and that we needed to retreat so he just reached out-he broke his neck so fast we didn’t realize what he had done at first. one minute he was gasping for air and then next he was just limp. sensei just picked up the body and told us to run, and that’s what we did. we just ran the whole way back. he explained what had happened to the hokage so i never knew that he lied about breaking my team mates neck and no one asked at that point thinking that he was a loyal member of the village. when he met with us, he just explained the circle of a ninjas life and how it was our duty to protect the secrets of konoha, of course we didn’t even think to question about the fact that a ten year old wouldn’t know any secrets, but we just thought our sensei had been heroic and stopped his pain. we never talked about it after that."  
kakashi had sat and listened intently to what the chunin had to say, he was amazed at what the man had witnessed at such a young age. he was amazed that iruka had turned out the way he was with such a sick bastard as his sensei.  
"did you ever tell anyone the truth about what happened?"  
iruka shrugged before admitting.   
"the third suspected something by the way we must have acted around sensei right after, but he didn’t have any proof of course and he was still believing that his student was doing a good job being our sensei. nothing ever came of it, so everyone let it go."  
"so you didn’t tell anyone?"  
kakashi asked once more.  
"well i just told you, does that count?"  
iruka smiled a bit after asking the question. kakashi was astounded at the chunin, he figured that iruka would have told the third after everything that happened. with his sensei fleeing the village and becoming a missing nin, it would make sense to come forward and say all he knew about the man. sighing kakashi smirked a bit at the man before answering the chunin’s question.  
"i guess it does, what about your other teammate, the one that-"  
"that i killed?"  
iruka smiled in a knowing way.  
"yeah"  
kakashi said a bit stiffly. iruka nodded his head before starting the tale.  
"its pretty simple, we were on a mission and halfway there he revealed to me that he was dying and that he'd been in incredible pain for months now. he said there was nothing they could do for him and that he didn’t want to die laying in a hospital. he told me how he had planned to die on the mission so the village wouldn’t know anything about his sickness and so he could die with honor. when he got paired with me, he realized that it woudn’t work. so he begged me, he said the mission was easy and that i would have no problem carrying it out myself, i was so stupid-he of course had been lying, but i think its because of how desperate he was. either way he asked for my help and i gave it to him. i hid his body and went to finish the mission- i barely made it out alive, so i just returned to his body and waited. i couldn’t just leave him there so i waited until they sent someone after us."  
"why didn’t you lie when they found you?"  
iruka shrugged.  
"i figured they would have found out the truth and i wanted to make sure that everyone understood that i was only taking care of a friend. of course no one saw it that way. those that were involved were sworn to secrecy and they handed down my sentence and carried the whole thing out quietly. sensei took me out to the forest a week later and demanded to know what had happened.  
i told him everything of course and he just stood there looking at me with this weird look on his face. i couldn’t tell if he was mad or disappointed in me or just sad that he had lost another student. it wasn’t until he started to tell me how they had been holding me back from who i was truly meant to be that i realized he wasn’t angry with me and almost seemed proud of me. i wasn’t sure what to do so i just accepted his praise and moved on. of course the third was confused as to why i didn’t seem to mourn the death of my teammate after speaking with sensei, but figured he had just given me the typical talk about how death was inevitable for all shinobi. it wasn’t until sensei left that i realized just how messed up the entire situation was...he was just manipulating me like before."  
kakashi watched as the man frowned as he relayed the story, kakashi watched as different emotions played across the mans face as iruka continued.  
"that’s when i started to be more ruthless i guess, after my last team mate died and by my own hands...what sensei told me...it messed with me a bit. it only took a little while for the third to notice the change in me, but by that time he had started having more problems with my sensei and the fact that people were going missing. he didn’t have time to counsel a messed up kid."  
kakashi frowned as he listened to iruka explain away any fault on the third’s part.  
"so you were just left alone?"  
iruka shrugged.  
"for a while yeah, right after they discovered what sensei had been doing the whole village was in disorder, people were questioning the thirds abilities as a leader. he didn’t have time to make sure i was ok-he asked of course, but i never burdened him with anything"  
kakashi frowned, surely there should have been someone that the chunin could have go to for help. as if reading the silver haired mans mind iruka spoke up.  
"the thing is, i don’t think i wanted help-i was angry at myself and at sensei, for a while i was even angry at the third for choosing him to be my sensei. i don’t think anyone would have been able to reach me at that point."  
kakashi nodded his head in understanding before asking.  
"so what changed?"  
iruka smirked a bit before stating.  
"on one of my adventures around town, i disrupted a whole bunch of business owners got me in trouble. they sent me straight to the third, everyone was afraid that i was turning out just like sensei-so the third gave me an option, i either clean up the mess i made and do community service for a while or i get locked up for the correct amount of time for what i'd done. i was furious of course, i still blamed him for a lot of things, in the end he ended up choosing for me because i refused to answer him. i ended up doing d rank missions around town for three months, it was during one of those missions that i found out that i was actually really good with kids"  
smiling iruka couldn’t help but reminisce about his past, the third had put up with a lot of shit from him that was for sure.  
"and then you became a teacher at the academy?"  
kakashi said in a certain tone of voice. iruka shook his head.  
"oh hell no, the council didn’t trust me, the third couldn’t vouch for me because of my recent actions. so he just came up with a new assignment for me, i was to help the teachers already working at the academy to build up a good repore with the council and once that happened i was able to take the exams to be a teacher"  
kakashi was surprised with all the chunin had shared with him, always one to test his limits he had to ask the chunin why.  
"why'd you really decide to share all this with me?"  
iruka smirked before stating.  
"saw through that huh?"  
"like naruto's clones"  
laughing iruka nodded his head before explaining himself.  
" the therapist actually said i should tell someone-anyone really about what i've experienced, she said everybody needs their story heard and that by doing so i might find some kind of inner peace or whatever"  
the chunin waved his hand once more in the air as he explained. kakashi smirked.  
"you haven’t found inner peace?"  
snorting iruka shook his head at the jounin.  
"no, i just figured since we were sharing things, why not try out her idea. besides you already know some things about me that others don’t, so i figured why not you."  
"glad to be of service"  
the jounin stated joyfully. iruka yawned suddenly and apologized for it, kakashi didn’t pay him any mind and suggested that they go to bed, iruka nodded and made for his room, coming to the fork in the hallway, iruka paused for a moment before saying.  
"thank you"  
iruka didn’t wait to hear kakashi's response, he simply shut the door to his room and went to bed. the silver haired jounin smiled before making his way to his own bed for the night. 

***********************************

just like the day before iruka was the first one to wake up, but instead of venturing out into the library or living room he basked in the comfy bed for a moment longer. it wasn’t often that he got to relax and stay in bed, he always had something lined up to keep him busy. iruka didn’t regret that, but it was nice to have a little break. after basking in the warmth of the bed he was in for far longer than he knew he should have the chunin threw the blankets off of himself. getting up he gathered some clothes and headed to take a shower.  
kakashi heard the water turn on in the bathroom and rolled over to glance at his clock. it was early, way too early for the jounin to be up after having stayed up so long the previous night. sighing he decided he might as well get up now and make some tea, he could take his shower once iruka was done. passing by the doorway to the bathroom he listened for just a moment to make sure everything was alright before continuing on his way. he made some tea and looked out the balcony to see how the clean up was going, they still had a long way to go before konoha was back to normal, but at least they had won against wave. hearing the water shut off kakashi waited patiently for the nin to come out of the bathroom. ten minutes passed and still no chunin. frowning kakashi was about to go and check on him when he heard iruka call out his name.  
"hey kakashi?"  
"yeah"  
the jounin shouted down the hallway, he had already started making his way down the hallway before iruka had called him. now standing outside the door kakashi waited for the man to respond.  
" i don’t suppose you have any hair ties do you?"  
smiling the jounin stated through the door.  
"i might in the third drawer"  
"ah thanks"  
soon enough the door was opened revealing a dressed chunin with his hair tied back like he normally had it. coming out into the hallway kakashi told him there was tea in the kitchen and that he was going to catch a shower. nodding his head iruka made his way into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of tea before going to stand at the balcony. the chunin idly heard the water turn on in the bathroom and wondered what he should do now that he had a couple minutes to himself. taking another drink of his tea he decided why not, opening the sliding glass door he stepped out onto the balcony and enjoyed the fresh breeze that carried all the normal scents of a busy ninja village. iruka was enjoying the sights and smells of his home when he heard a voice call out to him.  
"hey iruka"  
looking down he saw one of the other school teachers he was used to seeing at the school. gulping a bit nervously he waved cordially to the acquaintance.  
"what are you doing over on this side of town?"  
"im visiting hatake-san"  
the teacher seemed confused for a second before clarifying.  
"kakashi hatake?"  
sighing iruka nodded his head, like there was another hatake in the entire village. it took a moment but the man finally nodded his head and said.  
"we've missed you at the school, is something going on?"  
shaking his head iruka explained to the best of his ability in the same lie they had told to other people.  
"no-just a change in assignment, im doing some things for the hokage"  
the man nodded in understanding and wished the chunin well before continuing on his way to the academy. letting out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, iruka leaned against the balcony railing. he thought about what the man had said. they'd missed him? he was sure that was not the case, a lot of the teachers hated that he was an over achiever, he was sure that they thought he was trying to make them look bad which wasn’t the case at all. he just really enjoyed his job. the interaction with the man gave him something to think about.

having cleaned himself up, kakashi pulled on a clean mask and covered his sharingan eye before leaving the bathroom. walking down the hallway he heard voices, one distinctly belonging to the chunin in his care. frowning he made his way around the apartment, idly thinking 'if that’s those two chunin i'm gonna throw something at them' it had been too obvious to the jounin that all their questions had unnerved the chunin and he didn’t want to add to the stress the man was already under. to his surprise, the conversation ended as he rounded the hallway. watching the chunin lean against the railing kakashi was surprised when iruka mumbled to himself.  
"why are people so nosy?"  
smiling kakashi came up behind the chunin and answered him.  
"were shinobi, we like to ask questions"  
seeing the man jump the jounin smiled underneath his mask as the man whirled around. iruka frowned at kakashi before stating.  
"stop sneaking up on me"  
kakashi just continued to smile at iruka as if he had done nothing wrong. shaking his head iruka walked passed the man and re entered the apartment. the jounin followed close behind.   
"we should eat something before you have to go to therapy"  
iruka nodded his head before requesting something light on the stomach. concerned kakashi asked if anything was wrong.  
"no i just have a feeling were going to be talking about things that are not going to make me feel well...call it intuition or what have you"  
nodding his head kakashi made sure that the breakfast they shared was something that would hopefully stay down regardless of what iruka was forced to talk about that day. they ate a light breakfast before heading to the hospital. luckily they didn’t encounter anyone on their way, which left them to walk in silence. reaching the entrance to the hospital kakashi asked.  
"do you want me to walk you to the office?"  
"no, i know where it is"  
nodding his head kakashi said he would return in an hour to pick him up. iruka nodded his head as he made his way inside to go to his next session. kakashi watched him enter the building before leaving to entertain himself for an hour.

*******

jumping from rooftop to rooftop, kakashi made good time, he was meeting his team to talk about what had been going on in the village as well as let them know about how iruka was doing. although they were not overly close to the man, it seemed that his teammates were curious to see how the man was fairing after enduring ibiki and his memories. landing outside the tea house, he waved to the group as he approached. quickly scooting into the booth he greeted them all. they ordered their drinks and while they waited for the waitress to return, the first question popped up.  
"so how's he been?"  
"as well as could be expected really, he hasn’t tried anything so we’ve been getting along fine"  
the group listened to their friend talk about the chunin before beginning to ask a variety of questions.  
"hasn’t tried anything really? i thought he would be chomping at the bit after when we found him with asuma's blade"  
kakashi shrugged before stating.  
"i let him clean the dishes and forgot that i had left a knife in there, he cleaned it and although he seemed fixated on it, didn’t do anything and handed it over to me when i asked for it."  
kurenai's eyes widened at that, she quickly warned her teammate to be more careful. kakashi waved her off before stating.  
"i hid the knife block that night, there is nothing remotely sharp or pointy in my place at the moment, that is not under lock and key"  
that seemed to relax the kunoichi considerably.  
"so what have you all been up too?"  
the silver haired jounin asked, they shrugged before telling him they had been mostly guarding the hokage, or doing detail work to try and remove some of the debris in the village. all boring things for ninja of their skill. their drinks came and the group lounged about together. it was kakashi who told them about iruka's willingness to share his past with him.  
"he just let you ask anything?"  
genma asked speculatively.   
"yep, said it was the therapists idea."  
"do you believe him?"  
asuma asked. shrugging kakashi said he didn’t have a reason to not believe him, as the man hadn’t appeared to be lying to him, but that he was taking everything with a grain of salt. it was genma,who while sucking on a senbon asked if the chunin had talked about his old sensei.  
"he did, he asked me to keep it quiet for now. but what he revealed-orochimaru wasn’t a normal sensei to those kids, not by a long shot. of course we knew he was screwed up, but even back then there were things that should have gotten that bastard hanged."  
they all knew how screwed up orochimaru was, but to know that there was more that they still didn’t know was frustrating to them. they were used to being in the know, but understood kakashi's promise to the chunin.   
"did he really not know that orochimaru was up to something all those years ago?"  
kakashi tilted his head to raidou before stating.  
"from what he told me, he truly didn’t have a clue as to what orochimaru was up too. plus there's the fact that orochimaru didn’t try to take iruka with him."  
they nodded at that, the snake sanin was known for wanting to keep what he thought was his. if he truly had any attachment to iruka he would have dragged the boy along and possibly included him in his plans. looking to the clock kakashi told them he had to go pick up the chunin and that he would be in touch in the next couple days. with that he made his way back to the hospital to pick up his ward.

******

arriving outside the door to the therapists office kakashi was surprised to see the lady waiting for him, feeling a sense of dread crawl up his spine he hastened his pace. the elderly woman finally noticed him coming down the hall and motioned him to come into her office quietly. doing as he was instructed kakashi was surprised to find the chunin asleep on a couch in the room.  
"i don’t understand"  
the woman nodded her head before telling the jounin.  
"we talked about some rather traumatizing things today, made the poor man physically sick, i let him take it easy after that. no need to push things before he's ready. the mind can be a fickle thing and although his physical wounds have healed the mental ones are everlasting."  
nodding his head, kakashi asked the elder how iruka was taking to the therapy.  
"he's resistant, he has long held beliefs that im trying to reroute in his brain, that is not an easy thing to do. an example would be his belief that he should have stopped his sensei from harming the third, that it was his fault that orochimaru went after the third as some vendetta to punish him for choosing the village over orochimaru."  
kakashi’s eyes widened. the chunin truly believed that the death of the third was his fault somehow. the therapist ignored the jounin’s reaction in favor of explaining.  
"changing a persons way of thinking is like trying to move a mountain, you have to do it stone by stone, you cant just uproot the whole thing at once. were taking baby steps, but from what he has revealed to me-someone should have noticed earlier that things were not right with him."  
kakashi nodded his head dumbly before managing to find his voice.  
"he said the third hokage knew some of what was going on in his life."  
nodding her head she agreed about that, but went onto explain that his comrades and coworkers should have noticed a drastic change in behavior anytime stressful events happened to the man. the fact that no one seemed to notice proved that either iruka was really good at hiding things from people or he truly didn’t have many friends who were open enough to say something to the man.  
" i know he works with two other chunin at the missions desk, im not sure about the school though. do you think they knowingly didn’t report things?"  
the woman shrugged her shoulders.  
"if they knew something was wrong and did nothing than they were putting not just iruka’s life in danger but those around him. i have seen many shinobi break in my lifetime, but never one so controlled as him. he has only allows pieces of himself to break, never the whole of his mind. if he were to have a massive breaking episode-it could be dangerous to any around the man."  
looking to the sleeping chunin, it brought up more questions as to just how powerful the man was, did anyone really know what he was capable of? jarring himself from the thoughts, kakashi took the time to thank the woman.  
"thank you for telling me, i will make sure he takes it easy for the rest of the day"  
she nodded and walked over to the sleeping man, gently shaking him awake and telling him it was time for him to go. iruka nodded before noticing kakashi in the room. he got to his feet and made his way to his guardian before saying.  
"can we go now"  
kakashi nodded his head and reached out to lay his hand on the man’s shoulder. in a puff of smoke they were gone. they reappeared at the front of the kakashi’s apartment. unlocking his door kakashi let the chunin do as he pleased. he knew that there was nothing the man could hurt himself with in his apartment, and he would feel if the man tried to use his chakra. kakashi watched silently as iruka walked down the hallway and entered his room, shutting the door quietly behind him. sighing kakashi made himself comfortable on the couch and started to catch up on his reading.


	12. runt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> having a bad reaction to therapy, iruka and kakashi have a talk about what the chunin wants. namely not to go back to therapy, deciding to choose his battles, kakashi does what he can to persuade the man otherwise. iruka also gets to meet pakkun for the first time with interesting results.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the fourth of july extravaganza.

laying on the bed iruka stared at the ceiling, a habit of his it seemed. he'd come into his room because he didn’t want to talk about anything and knew that kakashi would naturally be curious as to how his session went. sighing he tried to collect his thought but his mind kept drifting back over and over to the same memory. breathing through his nose iruka tried to quell the rising nausea. he found himself bolting out the door in the next minute and barely making it to the bathroom in time to get sick. he heaved for what felt like forever, he'd already lost his breakfast and there was nothing left but bile for his body to get rid of, not that it seemed to realize that as the heaving continued.

*******

kakashi had just been about to find out what happened to the daring hero, when he heard a door slam open and racing footsteps before the obvious sounds of someone getting violently sick came from what he assumed was his bathroom. without a second thought kakashi found himself racing down the hallway he quickly found iruka heaving into the toilet. wincing at the sight the jounin entered the bathroom to try and help the chunin in anyway he could. getting a washcloth he dampened it with cold water before gently touching the now quiet teachers shoulder.  
"wipe your mouth"  
iruka didn’t bother to open his eyes, instead he just reached up and took the washcloth to do as he was told. leaning his head against the toilet iruka let the cold porcelain cool his forehead.  
"feel better?"  
"not really"  
"do you wanna talk about it?"  
"no"  
"alright"  
kakashi continued to watch iruka as the man lay curled around his toilet, the chunin stayed like that for a couple more minutes before he was sure he was done being sick. flushing the toilet iruka stood shakily and was about to make his way past kakashi when the jounin requested.  
"why don’t you come out into the living room, we can open the balcony door and get you some fresh air."  
nodding his head mostly because he just didn’t have the strength to argue, iruka followed the masked man out into the living room. instead of choosing his favorite chair he made his way to the couch and curled up on it. kakashi opened the balcony door to let some air in and took a seat in his usual chair. kakashi let the man relax, taking out his book he resumed reading. glancing up occasionally to check on the chunin, he found that iruka appeared to have fallen asleep. smiling kakashi let the man rest.  
it was nearly three hours later, while turning yet another page to another volume of the amazing icha icha books that iruka startled him by talking out of the blue.  
"sorry"  
lowering his book he regarded the man curiously.  
"for what?"  
"causing trouble"  
raising an eyebrow, the jounin wasn’t sure what the man meant but decided to play along.  
"its not a big deal"  
iruka's eyes were still closed as he rested on the couch, but he continued to talk to kakashi.  
"still, you shouldn’t have to deal with all of this"  
"mah, your not so bad- i once had to carry genma the whole way home from a mission while he was very enthusiastically singing a bar song at the top of his lungs because he reacted poorly to a poison we encountered."  
the faint smile that came to the chunin’s lips was worth the slight embarrassment he felt for having been put in that position all those years ago.  
"really?"  
"the whole way"  
he said seriously. iruka gave a breathy chuckle at the tone of voice used.  
" i feel sorry for raidou, that couldn’t have been easy to handle when he got him home"  
"all i know was that i was glad he wasn’t my problem anymore. and i was finally able to shower and catch some sleep"  
iruka's smile abruptly faded, the notion of being a burden flooding his mind and causing his mind to keep going back to the memory, it just wouldn’t leave him alone. taking a deep breath he tried to overcome his bodies reaction to it. sensing that something was wrong kakashi asked.  
"need a bucket?"  
iruka nodded and kakashi quickly retrieved a bucket for the man to be sick in, just in case it happened again. iruka was able to hold it back, but just barely. after a few tense minutes had passed and the apparent danger of iruka vomiting again was diminishing the chunin said in a serious tone.  
"kakashi"  
"yes iruka"  
"i'd rather go to jail then go back to therapy"  
frowning at the chunin kakashi had to ask.  
"any particular reason?"  
"its only going to get worse, what we talked about today-it was light compared to some of the stuff-i don’t want to remember these things, they're in the past cant we just leave them there."  
sighing kakashi honestly answered.  
"you can try, but its been my experience that they always find a way back into your life if you don’t deal with them now they’ll just resurface later."  
kakashi was surprised when the chunin suddenly said.  
"i-i think i'd like to speak with the hokage"  
raising an eyebrow kakashi asked.  
"what about?"  
"all of this-the stuff that’s happening. i don’t think its going to work"  
"mah you have to give it a chance, your only on day two-"  
iruka quickly cut him off as he opened his eyes for the first time since the nausea had passed.  
"my point exactly, i don’t want to relive all of this"  
looking out the balcony door kakashi thought a moment.  
"if you want to speak to the hokage, i'll arrange it, however i doubt if she's going to change her mind"  
iruka nodded and said thank you before turning over to face away from kakashi and settling back down into the couch. the jounin watched the chunin for a couple minutes before returning to his book. whatever had happened today, it had obviously shaken the man.  
he let iruka sleep, hoping it would help the man to shake off whatever was troubling him. kakashi only woke him long enough for iruka to pick at lunch before allowing the man to go back to sleep. even with iruka in the apartment kakashi was finding it too quiet for his liking, he had enjoyed speaking with the ninja and was beginning to miss his company even though the man was only a few feet away. it was as he was contemplating summoning one of his nin dogs that the previously asleep ninja on his couch asked.  
"do you ever have nightmares?"  
not bothering to look up from his book he answered the chunin.  
"yes"  
flipping the page in his book kakashi didn’t have to look up to know the chunin had turned over and was now staring at him. he let iruka decide what they should talk about. he heard the teacher sigh.  
"did you ever get hurt-while training?"  
raising a brow he put his book down and considered the man before him, iruka didn’t realize he was rubbing his arm obviously in a gesture to comfort himself.   
"of course, ninja training is dangerous, people get hurt all the time. did you get injured by training with your team mates?"  
"not from my teammates no"  
kakashi understood the implications of that, orochimaru had been the one to hurt him. sure all kids got banged up while training with one another or with their sensei, but kakashi figured this was more than that.  
"did it happen often?"  
iruka was silent a moment before he admitted.   
"hmm-depends on if he was mad at us or not"  
"why would he be mad at his students?"  
iruka shrugged before mumbling.  
"he always seemed mad or at the very least disappointed in us. we were always trying to live up to his expectations. training for hours after he let us go for the day in hopes that the next day we might impress him. it never worked though."  
"and he hurt you?"  
iruka flinched a little, his hand stilling from its therapeutic stroking of his arm.  
"it seams surreal now, to think back on those times."  
kakashi let the teacher avoid the question, he was going to let iruka decided what he wanted to answer and when.  
"is this why you were sick today? because of a memory?"  
iruka nodded his head, closing his eyes he could recall the exact memory that came to mind. taking a deep breath he willed it out of his thoughts. he really didn’t want to loose what lunch he had eaten.  
"i see, it must have been a very powerful memory to illicit such a response from your body."  
iruka nodded his head again, he had a lot of memories that if given the opportunity would make him violently ill, that’s why he chose not to think about them. they were in the past after all.  
"have you ever gotten sick like that-because of a memory?"  
kakashi thought about it a while before shaking his head.  
"cant say i have, normally my bodies response is to just collapse, i always wake up in the hospital, so someone must find me every time it happens. i did get sick after fighting itachi though"  
"after you woke up from the coma?"  
"yes"  
iruka looked at kakashi, he didn’t know why he was being so open with the man, other than they had nothing better to talk about. having had enough of talking about his memories, iruka dared to ask what the jounin had been up too.  
"so what did you do-while i was in therapy?"  
"saw my team for a little bit"  
"oh, how were they?"  
smiling kakashi told iruka about how they were being forced to help with the cleanup when not on active guard duty and how genma had been complaining about it. iruka smiled at that. finally it was kakashi who decided to ask a question that could possibly end tonight’s banter between them.  
"why haven’t you tried to make friends in the village after your teammates deaths?"  
iruka was surprised at the question and it showed on his face. the chunin took a moment to consider whether or not he wanted to answer it before stating.  
" i guess i never really wanted any-i didn’t want the connections with other people, there was just too much at stake. they could learn about my past and endanger my position at the school or they might leave the village on a mission and never return. there was always the chance that sensei might learn of any connections i had made and decide to...do something. i just didn’t want the hassle of it all."  
"mah even anbu are allowed to have a social life, surely a school teacher would be allowed the same thing. there is risk in everything we do, having friends is probably the least likely thing to hurt us ne?"  
iruka smiled, he could recall how people had invited him to many events, he'd always turned them down and slowly over time he wasn’t asked anymore. deciding to turn the tables on the nin he asked.  
"what about you? you don’t go around talking about your past-most people think your a recluse"  
kakashi laughed a little before responding.  
"im sure most people do, but i do have friends that i enjoy spending time with."  
" your hardly ever seen around with people-or at least that i've seen"  
"i am a ninja iruka, i know how to get around town without people noticing me"  
the chunin conceded to that and nodded.  
"so what, you guys go to super secret places only anbu are allowed?"  
laughing kakashi had to go along with it.  
"something like that"  
"pft liar"  
kakashi laughed some more at the chunin's expense. iruka stared at the ceiling, he was trying to understand everything. why was he so comfortable around kakashi-he'd hated the man when he learned he was going to enter team seven in the chunin exams. he barely knew him other than the fact that he was always late and returned in less than stellar reports. then there was the fact that he had taken part in what had been a hellish two weeks of his life, though iruka admitted to himself that kakashi had never hurt him. he’d just stood there watching it happen. he shouldn’t allow himself to open up to him, regardless of what the therapist had told him. she's warned him that he was escalating towards a manic attack, he'd only experienced that a couple times in his life and to be honest he didn’t want to go through it again, but he didn’t believe that simply talking to someone was going to make him better either.   
"what are you thinking about?"  
"what the therapist said today"  
"ah"  
iruka left it at that, he didn’t need to be giving the jounin a heads up to what was going on in therapy. it was private anyways. there was frankly some things he wished to keep to himself. kakashi stood abruptly and fetched a blank scroll and a pen, quickly jotting something down he sealed the scroll and prepared to do the summons ritual. kakashi watched as iruka sat up to watch him. smiling at the man, he cut his finger and made the appropriate hand signs to summon one of his nin dogs. in a puff of smoke they were no longer alone. pakkun sat on the floor looking very bored. having caught a scent that wasn’t his master, the dog turned its head and regarded the chunin coolly.  
"pakkun can you go deliver this to the hokage?"  
the dog huffed, but nodded his head, taking the offered scroll into his mouth he ran to the balcony door and was let out by kakashi. turning back around kakashi stretched, hearing some random pops as he did so.  
"what was that about?"  
looking to the chunin he told him truthfully.  
"a note to the hokage that you'd like to speak to her whenever she had a free moment."  
iruka nodded his head. he hadn’t expected the nin to do it tonight, but was silently grateful that the skilled ninja wasn’t trying to put it off either.   
"come on, we should fix something for dinner"  
nodding his head iruka followed the nin into the kitchen to help make dinner. it was when they were sitting down to eat that pakkun reappeared on the balcony. letting his ninken in kakashi pulled the scroll from his mouth and tossed the ninken a piece of beef. opening the scroll he quickly read it before tossing it over his shoulder into the trash. iruka was watching him obviously confused by his dismissal of the scroll.  
"she'll see you after your therapy session tomorrow."  
iruka nodded a bit stiffly at the simple reply.  
"oh ok."  
walking over to take his seat kakashi told pakkun he could go, but the dog just scratched his ear and laid down on the floor. iruka smiled, he wasn’t used to seeing a summons disregard its masters command without some form of violence. finally it was the dog who asked.  
"so whats with the runt?"  
raising a brow, iruka asked.  
"does he mean me?"  
before kakashi could answer the chunin the ninken said.  
"is there anyone else here?"  
"pakkun be nice"  
the dog snorted before regarding the intruder in his masters home. iruka wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do, so he introduced himself.  
"im iruka, kakashi is helping me with some things"  
the dog tilted its head curiously before approaching the teacher. watching the dog get closer iruka was perplexed when the ninken stopped right in front of him and asked.  
"you bedding one another?"  
confused he was about to ask what the dog meant when kakashi stood and marched towards the dog.  
"alright that’s enough!"  
the ninken smiled at iruka before racing away from his irate master and hoping up on the couch. kakashi sighed, his ninken were just as stubborn as him and it wouldn’t surprise him if the damn mutt decided to stay the rest of the night just to torture him. re-taking his seat the jounin apologized to iruka. the chunin nodded his head in obvious confusion for the apology before asking.  
"umm ok, so what did he mean anyways?"  
kakashi scratched at his chin a moment trying to figure out a nice way of saying it without utterly embarrassing himself and the school teacher in his house. it was of course pakkun who spoke up first.  
"you humans are your weird rituals. i meant are you mating"  
iruka immediately turned bright red, his mouth slightly agape in his shock at what the ninken had just said. iruka looked to kakashi to see the nin had his head in his hands and was shaking his head. smiling a little, the chunin couldn’t help but start laughing. kakashi's head bolted up and regarded the ninja in confusion.  
"sorry its just kinda funny, i've never seen you embarrassed before"  
kakashi frowned at the teachers obvious delight. that didn’t seem to stop iruka from continuing to chuckle. finally iruka turned to face pakkun and once he had collected himself replied.  
"no, we are not sleeping together, im just a house guest for a while."  
the dog nodded, his head on his paws.  
"how long have you been here?"  
"just a couple days"  
"how long are you going to be here?"  
unsure how to answer that, he scratched at his scar, but was saved from answering by kakashi.  
"pakkun leave him alone"  
the dog barely turned its head to look at kakashi before continuing.  
"are you a jounin too?"  
iruka shook his head a smile on his face.  
"chunin, i-well i taught at the school and worked at the missions desk"  
"passed tense-you don’t do that anymore?"  
iruka shrugged his shoulders at the dog, he was surprised at how curious the animal seemed to be of him. kakashi was just shaking his head and trying to figure out how to get rid of the damn creature before it upset iruka. pakkun could be a handful.  
"you smell like pups"  
"pups?"  
"children"  
looking down at his clothing he looked back at the dog.  
"i wore this a lot to school i guess, it must still smell like the kids"  
the dog nodded its head before asking.  
"wont your mate miss you if your here all the time?"  
blushing iruka stuttered to say.  
"i i don’t have one"  
"why not?"  
"pakkun"  
not even sparring a glance at his master the ninken waited for the chunin to answer him. sensing the dog wanted an answer despite kakashi’s warning iruka said.  
"ano, i just haven’t had good luck with relationships"  
the dog huffed at the answer before replying quite matter of factly.  
"you should see his past bed mates"  
iruka was unable to stop himself from laughing at the dogs matter of fact tone. then there was the fact that he got to enjoy the fact that kakashi looked like he wanted to kill his summons at the moment. once he had collected himself enough to talk, iruka said.  
"oh really? the villagers think he's quite promiscuous"  
the dog scratched at his ear again before nodding.  
"yeah we've heard it all before."  
smiling iruka leaned back in his chair and continued to talk with the dog while enjoying his meal. he didn’t finish it all as his stomach was still not too happy with him from earlier. iruka asked if kakashi minded if pakkun had the rest of his meal, and the silver haired jounin shook his head. pakkun seemed to appreciate the offering cause he scarfed the food down.  
"he acts like you never feed him"  
kakashi snorted at that.  
"he's stingy"  
iruka smiled at the ninken who was not afraid to speak his mind. it was a nice change of pace for him, he was only used to seeing the snakes and their tempers at being bothered. as if he could read minds the ninken asked what his summons was. iruka took a breath before telling the curious animal.  
"snakes"  
the dog frowned a bit and iruka looked down away from the dog. kakashi watched the whole scene with some trepidation, he wasn’t sure how iruka was going to respond, or what pakkun was going to say to him in return. he smiled though when the dog stated.  
"they don’t seem to fit you"  
iruka smiled before returning his gaze to the dog.  
"thanks, but they actually do."  
the dog shook his head at that, before moving on.  
"how'd you meet kakashi?"  
"oh we shared some students, he took them as genin after they graduated the academy"  
"ah those brats"  
smiling iruka nodded to the dog. he had no delusions that the dog was probably not fond of the kids. after all he'd met them when they were relatively new to the shinobi lifestyle. having a break in the repeated questions, iruka took the time to ask the dog.  
"how long have you known kakashi?"  
"since he was a pup"  
smiling at the dogs terminology iruka asked.  
"he was pretty young when he got your contract then wasn’t he?"  
"yes, but he knew how to handle us"  
iruka nodded his head, he had no doubt that kakashi was able to handle the ninken well. the dog spun the question back around on him a moment later by asking.  
"how old were you when you got the contract for the snakes?"  
"twelve i believe"  
"young to be in charge of such unpredictable creatures"  
putting his head in his hand iruka thought a moment before replying.  
"they already belonged to my sensei, so it wasn’t hard for me to learn from him in regards to how to handle them."  
"who was your sensei?"  
looking to kakashi he wasn’t sure if he should tell the ninken, but when kakashi nodded his head iruka sighed and said.  
"orochimaru"  
the dog frowned at the chunin, he knew that name well enough.  
"your lucky you escaped him and those snakes alive"  
iruka smiled, he knew how his life could have turned out if just a couple things had gone differently. of course he wasn’t about to share that information.  
"he ran and i just continued on i guess. the snakes will listen if you give them the right incentive."  
"their dangerous"  
the dog reiterated.   
"very, but its not unlike any other summons, you yourself could do a lot of damage if you got your teeth around someone"  
"true"  
the dog conceded to the mans point before asking.  
"so did you fight against wave when they invaded?"  
iruka saw kakashi frowning again at his ninken and replied.  
"only a little, i was mainly trying to get the children to a safe location. we did come across a few ninja on our way there, but were lucky enough to get by them with a few tricks"  
before the ninken could ask the man another question iruka suddenly yawned. the dog tilted its head to the side as he watched the man try to hide it. it was kakashi who suggested that the chunin go get ready for bed if he was tired. iruka nodded and excused himself. once the chunin was out of the room, kakashi sent a death glare to his ninken. pakkun didn’t seem bothered by it though because he simply stated.  
"this is interesting"  
"leave him alone pakkun"  
the jounin gritted out through clenched teeth.  
"so why you really having him here, you never have guests?"  
sighing kakashi made sure he hadn’t heard iruka come back down the hallway before stating.  
"my current mission is to keep him alive, he was interrogated by my team under ibiki and found to be a danger to himself and others if left in the state he's in right now. so he's staying with me until he gets better"  
the ninken watched its master for a while before letting its opinion be known.  
"are you sure he will get better?"  
kakashi shrugged before telling the ninken that all he could do was try. pakkun nodded his understanding. they both heard as iruka came down the hallway. peeking around the corner he said.  
"i think i'll just head to bed now, it was nice meeting you pakkun. i'll see you in the morning kakashi"  
the ninja nodded his head and they waited until the man had closed his bedroom door before speaking to one another again.  
"you let him close the door?"  
"i've already sealed away anything he could use to harm himself"  
"you do realize he's a ninja and could use just about anything to harm himself"  
kakashi scowled at him before answering.  
"so far he's only shown an interest in knives."  
the dog nodded its head before suddenly perking up as an idea struck him.  
"you should get one of the others to watch him at night"  
raising a brow kakashi asked just how he was supposed to go about that.  
"just summon one and introduce him, when he's not around just tell the ninken the truth about whats going on and let them just shove their way into his room, im sure he wont fight it. and you'll have a way to deny any action, we do think for ourselves you know and he doesn’t seem he type to say no to a cute dog."  
kakashi smiled at the normally annoying ninken, it wasn’t a bad idea. he'd have to try it tomorrow, deciding to bait the little dog he asked.  
"so are you volunteering?"  
the dog disappeared in a puff of smoke much to kakashi’s amusement.

**********

iruka had a hard time sleeping that night, he woke up numerous times from nightmares and just couldn’t relax himself enough to fall back to sleep. every time he closed his eyes he saw his sensei’s eyes staring back at him, his voice trying to talk to him. so iruka laid in bed staring at the ceiling until morning.  
getting out of bed, kakashi was a little surprised to see iruka's door still closed, but figured the man was just tired from his previous day of being sick. he'd let the man rest a bit longer. the jounin went about his morning like he normally would. making tea and looking through the cupboards to find something to make for breakfast. he was rummaging through the fridge when he heard movement behind him, he smiled as the chunin poured himself some tea before ever speaking to him.  
once iruka managed to make it to the kitchen he ignored kakashi in favor of getting a cup of tea. once he had taken the first sip of the hot beverage he muttered a good morning to the ninja. kakashi said good morning and turned around to ask iruka what he would like for breakfast but his eye widened at the state the man was in. iruka had dark bags under his eyes and his eyes weren’t even open as he drank from his cup.  
"didn’t sleep well?"  
iruka shook his head, slowly making his way out into the living room. kakashi sighed, he knew it was always the possibility that the ninja could have problems sleeping or eating once they started his therapy but had hoped it wouldn’t be until a little later. he did his best to make a nice breakfast, keeping it on the light side just in case the teachers stomach was still upset. iruka thanked him politely but stuck to mostly tea, getting up to refill his cup a second time before reclaiming his chair. kakashi left him be. with breakfast out of the way the pair readied themselves to trek over to the hospital for another day of therapy. they walked in silence to the hospital that morning, it wasn’t until they got to the entrance way that iruka asked.  
"where are you going today?"  
"mah i got a scroll this morning before you woke up, so i'll be attending to that"  
iruka nodded and said goodbye, slowly making his way to his dreaded therapy.


	13. a physc eval and a dog?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> after having yet another session, iruka has had enough. confronting the hokage about some things that came to light in his latest session, the chunin doesn't pull any punches when going around her power as the hokage of the village. seeing the chunin winning against the hokages wishes, kakashi plays dirty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> third chapter of the fourth of july extravaganza

kakashi appeared in front of the man he wanted to see. ibiki was in his office and didn’t pay him any attention until he was done signing something. looking up he glared a little at the intrusion.  
"can i help you?"  
"sure, i was wondering if i could get a copy of iruka's entire file"  
the torture expert regarded the ninja before him carefully before asking why.  
"it might help me to understand him"  
ibiki snorted back at kakashi before stating.  
"i doubt that-you already heard most of what's in there, he's kept everything under lock and key it seems. is he giving you trouble?"  
shaking his head kakashi explained how the chunin had gotten violently ill because of a specific memory and had remained quite depressed for most of the day because of it. ibiki didn’t seem all that impressed as he reminded the jounin.  
"you above all else should understand the effects memories have on people. if he doesn’t want to face it, we cant make him."  
"any suggestions?"  
leaning back in his chair a moment ibiki thought about what 'he' would do in this situation and told kakashi quite plainly.  
"tie him to a chair and torture him"  
the silver haired nin did not seem amused by his response. ibiki shrugged his shoulders before continuing.  
"i know all about how to break people kakashi-fixing them is an entirely different matter."  
nodding his head, kakashi was about to leave when ibiki called out to him.  
" are you sure he wants to be fixed?"  
kakashi didn’t respond, instead choosing to disappear in a flash of smoke. kakashi lounged in a tree outside the hospital the rest of the time, quietly reading his book. once time was up he entered the hospital and went down the now well known path to iruka's therapists office. he waited outside until they were finished. the door was yanked open and iruka stormed past him, sighing kakashi silently followed the man. he knew that iruka was going to see the hokage and could only hope that the man would calm himself some before he spoke too rashly to the hokage herself.  
entering the hokage tower, iruka stopped at the sign in desk. oddly enough genma and raidou were the one's manning it presently. seeing the fuming chunin, they both raised eyebrows. but seeing kakashi shake his head behind the nin, let it go.   
"sign here"  
genma stated around his usual senbon. iruka did as told and was about to go past the two ninja before raidou called out.  
"you might want to cool off before you go in there-ok"  
iruka continued walking but managed to flip the ninja off as he went. kakashi only paused for a minute to mutter 'bad session' before following his charge. they made their way up to the top and were held outside by a anbu with a lizard mask. while they waited kakashi couldn’t help but wonder if iruka could identify the man beneath the mask if given enough time. the anbu seemed bored and regarded the fuming man in front of him skeptically, turning to kakashi he stated rather bluntly.  
"he better not try to attack the hokage"  
kakashi shrugged his shoulder, he knew there were anbu hidden just outside the windows of the hokage’s tower, he had often been one of them. he also knew they would have no objections to restraining a threat to the hokage. finally the door opened and shizune allowed them to enter. she greeted them respectfully and was a little taken aback when the normally very formal iruka didn’t say anything back but stormed past her. shizune glanced at kakashi and said good morning before racing around the angered chunin to stand by her boss. kakashi lounged against a window, waiting to see how this interaction would go.  
"did you really think i wouldn’t figure it out?"  
the hokage continued to sort through the papers on her desk, before replying.  
"figure what out iruka?"  
the woman’s lack of interest to the conversation seemed to only enrage the chunin further as he spat out.  
"don’t play dumb its an insult to both of us, there's no way she could have any of that information unless you ordered for it to be found"  
the hokage poured herself a cup of sake, a headache was starting to form.  
"i am the hokage iruka, i need to be kept informed about things that go in the village"  
"it was years ago, how does that pertain to the village now!"  
"its effecting a current resident of my village, so i would say it pertains to now very much"  
that only seemed to piss off the teacher more. his fists were clenched at his sides and there was a mild tremor to his form.  
"how did you get the information"  
the chunin grit out.  
"the same way we got so much information about you"  
iruka blinked a moment before he scowled and stated bluntly.  
"so you tortured him."  
putting her face in the palm of her hand she asked.  
"does it really bother you that much what happens to him?"  
" you had no right"  
the chunin shook his head. tsunade raised herself back up to her fool height in her chair and gave a withering glare to the man in front of her before calling out in a calm but deadly tone.  
"i had every right iruka, im the hokage. he had information i needed so i sent ibiki to get it- for what its worth he didn’t resist in giving the information over, in fact he was quite proud of himself when divulging all the information"  
iruka didn’t know what to say to that, he knew that the man was angry with him, but to willingly give that kind of information over to the hokage just to hurt him. it hurt, it hurt a lot. gathering himself up he stated matter of factly.  
"i wont go back to therapy. i’m done."  
she raised a brow to this before calmly retorting.  
"in case you forgot i am your hokage and i have people like him-"  
she pointed to kakashi.  
"and others who will escort you and hold you in your place if necessary for the duration of those sessions do i make myself clear."  
the glare iruka sent to the hokage was ten times worse than what kakashi had previously seen the man capable of. he was rather shocked when iruka tore off his hitae and threw it onto the hokage’s desk.  
"now im a civilian, even as the hokage you cannot request a civilian to seek treatment for something they have not officially been diagnosed with. on top of that all their shinobi files will automatically be sealed henceforth to protect any information they may know from getting out."  
with that he twisted around and started to storm out of the room, but a simple nod had kakashi blocking the way.   
"move"  
came the firm request of the glaring chunin staring up at him.  
"cant"  
kakashi pointed to the hokage and iruka spun around to face the woman who was now standing. his hitae in hand.  
"a shinobi of this village cannot retire from active service without undergoing a complete psych evaluation."  
iruka was fuming, but decided to play her game. he knew how to work around their questions.  
"fine, call for a psych eval-i'll wait"  
rubbing her forehead she was beginning to think she would have to order the man taken away from her office. reaching over she called the hospital and arranged a psych evaluation for the chunin who was still glaring daggers at her. hanging up the phone she regarded the angry teacher coldly before telling him.  
"their waiting for you, but if you fail-"  
iruka didn’t bother to let her finish instead he turned back around and glared at the silver haired nin, the hokage must have nodded again cause kakashi stepped out of the chunin’s way. iruka slammed the door on his way out, not caring if kakashi was following him or not.  
kakashi remained in the office for only a moment to ask.  
"what was all of that about?"  
"his relationship with mizuki, ibiki interrogated the man to find out just how bad the abuse had been-the rat actually enjoyed the experience which only goes to show how messed up he is."  
nodding his head kakashi said he should catch up with iruka. the hokage nodded before stating.  
"if he fails the psych evaluation, the council can request he be placed in a mental hospital for the rest of his life-it he passes it somehow, i'll have very little power over him and his actions since he will no longer be a shinobi of this village"  
nodding his head kakashi disappeared in a flash of smoke to catch up with the irate school teacher. he found him easily enough and appeared beside the man. iruka didn’t even flinch at his arrival, just kept storming his way to the hospital. kakashi didn’t bother to try talking to the man, he knew he wouldn’t get anywhere. they arrived at the hospital and after terrifying the girl at the information desk, iruka was going up two flights of stairs to find the man waiting for him. when they found the right office a pleasant man stood with a smile on his face.  
"ah you must be iruka, come in and we'll get started"  
taking notice of kakashi the doctor asked if iruka would like him present through the exam, confused iruka asked why.  
"some people find it easier if their not alone while being asked such personal questions, its up to you though"  
iruka waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and kakashi took a spot leaning against the wall. it was obvious that iruka just wanted to get this over with.  
"alright iruka, the hokage said you needed an evaluation to be relinquished from active duty, can i ask why your making this change?"  
"i'm no longer needed"  
the man nodded before rewording the man’s statement.   
"you feel no longer needed?"  
"no-there are others who will take my place, therefore i can leave active duty and focus on other things"  
the man tilted his head before asking.  
"like what iruka, what do you enjoy?"  
"reading"  
"that’s all?"  
iruka knew the man was trying to push him, but iruka wasn’t about to fall into any traps, he'd studied under orochimaru for kami sake.  
"gardening and cooking are also somethings i'd like to have more time with."  
nodding his head the man continued on.  
"and what would you do for income?"  
" i have a couple idea's that would make me an asset to the civilian lifestyle."  
"don’t care to share those?"  
"not with you no"  
smiling the man nodded his head and asked.  
"you were in an abusive relationship is that correct?"  
iruka didn’t even flinch as he nodded.  
"yes"  
"why did you stay with the man?"  
"because i was foolish enough to believe he loved me and that i loved him."  
"but that wasn’t the case?"  
iruka shook his head as he explained to the doctor.  
"no, he was abusive and i should have left as soon as he showed signs of hurting me. i should have reported him and done whatever paperwork was necessary to see him punished for what he had done to me instead of covering for him. it took a lot of time before i was able to realize that i don’t love him. "  
the man continued to jot down notes as they went back and forth.  
"alright iruka, i know that you teach at the academy for young shinobi, is there any reason why you don’t wish to continue this line of work?"  
iruka was well aware that the man had no idea of the circumstances surrounding him, so he lied. it wasn’t his fault if the man wasn’t allowed to know what was really going on.  
"i've taught many classes by now, i've seen them start to grow and become fine shinobi, i have also seen the darker side of things where they don’t come home to their families. i do not wish to participate with sending any more children to an early grave"  
"ah i see, alright, what about your connection with your previous sensei?  
"what about him?"  
"were you close?"  
iruka nodded his head.  
"yes"  
"and when he ran, how did that make you feel?"  
iruka shrugged his shoulders before stating.  
"betrayed"  
nodding his head the man continued this line of questioning.  
"and did you wish to follow him?"  
"no, my place is within the village"  
"good, alright and what about your recent attempts on your own life?"  
iruka acted as if he were thinking about the question before he answered the man.  
"they were brief moments of depression from the stress of the shinobi lifestyle i have no doubts that i will do better under less stress as a civilian. if that turns out to not be the case i will make sure that someone is notified instead of keeping these issues to myself."  
kakashi was astounded, iruka was answering everything perfectly never stuttering or pausing to think about his answer. he knew what to say and when to say it. the chunin wasn’t acting like himself though, it was all fake and kakashi could see right through the act.  
"good good. now the hokage seems to think that your only doing this to get out of your therapy sessions, is that true?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"i don’t need therapy to stop me from harming another person, so there is no need for me to go back. i have done nothing to put another at risk"  
the man nodded his head before revealing.   
"yes, she said as much. you've only harmed yourself in the past. so it wasn’t because something from your past upset you?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"it was more an invasion of privacy than the actual information"  
"ah, alright. i've come to understand that you were interrogated by ibiki-san because of your parents connection to wave"  
"yes"  
"and do you feel betrayed by this?"  
iruka shook his head before calmly stating.  
"ibiki and the anbu were doing their jobs, i had a legitimate connection to wave that they needed to investigate to make sure i wasn’t a threat to the village. they would be remiss in their duties to assume that someone with the connections i had was not a possible threat."  
"alright, and you've been staying with hatake-san"  
iruka glanced over to kakashi before nodding his head and turning to look back at the doctor.  
"yes"  
"how have you two been getting along?"  
"fine, we had a few spats about personal space, but that was mostly because we weren’t used to living with another. i’m rather used to living alone and i get the feeling he is used to that as well."  
the man nodded his head a few times as he wrote some things down on paper.  
"alright-but you feel like your ready to return to your own place"  
"yes"  
the man wrote some more notes down before standing and saying that was all he needed from him. iruka nodded his thanks and headed for the door.  
"the hokage will be expecting you, i'll call over and give her my results"  
iruka again thanked the man and left the room with all the courtesy that he had shown since they arrived. once the door was shut and they were a few steps down the hallway did kakashi choose to speak up about what he had just witnessed.   
"you know your supposed to tell the truth during one of those?"  
"not my fault if he cant do his job"  
sighing kakashi continued to follow the ninja back to the hokage’s office. re entering the tower genma and raidou spoke up upon seeing them again.  
"you guys were just here? what are you doing back"  
iruka didn’t bat an eye as he stated.  
"i had a psych evaluation, now im going to talk to the hokage"  
"a psych eval, isn’t it a little early for that?"  
iruka shook his head as he once again filled out the paperwork. it was genma who asked.  
"where's your hitae?"  
"i gave it to the hokage"  
"umm ok"  
they glanced between the two of them before looking to their teammate in confusion. kakashi didn’t know what to say. so he just followed after the chunin as he made his way back up the twisting corridor of the hokage tower. iruka was calm and collected as he waited outside the door, waiting for shizune to allow them to enter, iruka was sure that the hokage was busy talking to the doctor. the chunin was rather pleased with himself when he heard the woman shout loudly. the anbu on their side of the door jumped a little before regarding the chunin skeptically.  
"what did you do?"  
iruka turned to face the anbu and smiled not bothering to explain. the anbu turned to look at kakashi but the ninja just smiled and scratched the back of his head. finally the door was opened and a visibly shaken shizune told them to enter. this time iruka greeted the lady politely and went to stand in front of a fuming hokage. kakashi sighed as he took his place against the wall. he could tell this wasn’t going to be pretty.  
"hokage-sama"  
iruka bowed, tsunade was scowling at the ninja before her and let her ire show in her voice.  
"cut the crap"  
"i don’t know what your talking about hokage"  
iruka straightened himself out and smiled at the angry woman before him.  
"so did i pass?"  
the chunin asked in a cocky tone, easily showing he already knew the answer, but wanted her to admit it. shaking her head she downed the entire cup of sake on her desk before pouring another cup.  
"i'll give you credit, that was good-but your not fooling anyone"  
"i fooled him though didn’t i"  
"yes yes you did, thank you for making it evident that i need to retrain my psych people"  
iruka nodded his head before adding.  
"glad to be of service"  
rummaging through her desk, she pulled some papers from her desk before telling the chunin.  
"you should really reconsider all of this iruka"  
the chunin didn’t respond to her plea, he just stared at her. sighing she started to sign some papers.  
"i'll sign your release papers and all the required paperwork for you to become a civilian as you technically passed the exam, but i will keeping a close eye on you."  
"understood"  
nodding her head she signed the last of the papers before turning her undivided attention to iruka. this time she had a smile on her face. iruka frowned, he knew he wasn’t going to like what was about to happen.  
"your apartment building has been condemned as a safety hazard. you should collect any valuables as soon as possible before they demolish the building."  
iruka’s mouth came open a bit in shock upon hearing the news. the self satisfied smirk on the hokage’s face didn’t help any. she knew that he had no where to go now, scowling at her iruka waited, he knew she wasn’t done.  
"but i have a solution"  
"great"  
he retorted sourly. smiling the hokage couldn’t hold back her glee.  
"im sure kakashi wouldn’t mind you staying at his place for a while longer until a new apartment can be found. granted as a civilian it may be a little while before an availability comes available."  
iruka frowned at the hokage, figures she would find a way for him to be watched. kakashi stepped away from the wall before placing his hand on iruka's shoulder.  
"mah he's been no trouble at all. i'd be happy to have him stay with me for a while."  
iruka sent a glare over his shoulder to the ninja, but didn’t bother to retort to it. the hokage clapped her hands together.  
"great, then get out of my office"  
before iruka could try and argue with the hokage, he was pulled by his elbow by kakashi out of the woman’s office. once the door was shut behind them iruka scowled all the more when he heard the hokage laughing. glancing to kakashi he muttered.  
"i don’t like you right now"  
kakashi just smiled at the nin and started on his way home. iruka caught up soon enough and they walked in silence before iruka asked.  
"so what will your next assignment be now that your not guarding me?"  
kakashi shrugged before deciding to poke the bear.  
"might take some time off"  
iruka's eye twitched, he should have figured that the ninja would be in on everything. walking faster iruka made his way down the flights of stairs to the entrance to the hokage’s tower, as he walked past the two men who had already seen him a number of times that day iruka called out.  
“kakashi is an asshole”  
genma and raidou watched the man storm out of the building before they turned to see their friend walk in a leisurely pace behind the chunin. kakashi nodded to them with a smirk on his face as he followed after the man. the pair shared a confused look before sighing.

iruka walked up the flights of stairs to kakashi's place. the silver haired ninja opened the door and wasn’t surprised when the chunin stalked down the hallway to his room. kakashi was surprised when the door wasn’t slammed shut, but figured that iruka was starting to settle down. going into the living room he sighed, this was not how he wanted the day to go.  
iruka lay half on the bed his face muffled by the pillow as he cursed the hokage and kakashi. he vaguely heard the door open it creaking a little. sighing he was about to yell at kakashi to go away when something cold and wet rubbed against his hand that was draped over the side of the bed. jerking back he turned his head to the side to see what had touched him. his eyes widened when he saw the dog sitting there nuzzling his hand.  
"umm hello?"  
the dog whined and continued to try and get him to pet it. sighing he did as asked and reached out to pet the dogs head, scratching behind one ear. the dog closed its eyes in obvious pleasure. laughing a little when the creatures tail started to thump against the floor in pleasure. iruka couldn’t help but ask.  
"and what is your name?"  
the dog seemed to snap out of its reverie and tilted its head to the side as if it didn’t know how to respond to the question. getting confused iruka called out.  
"kakashi?"  
he heard the footsteps of the other nin come down the hallway, the ninja peeking his head around the doorway to answer him.  
"yeah"  
pointing to the dog sitting beside his bed iruka asked.  
"um i think you lost one of your ninken"  
kakashi smiled at iruka as he glanced from the ninken beside iruka’s bed to the chunin before stating rather matter of factly.  
"nope"  
iruka watched as kakashi was about to leave, calling out to the the ninja he demanded an explanation.  
"what do you mean nope, he has to be yours"  
looking down at the dog in question and then back to the school teacher he answered.  
"sorry doesn’t seem to be one of mine"  
iruka frowned at kakashi, he wasn’t sure what the ninja was up to, but he wasn’t in the mood for games. sitting up he glanced to the dog and then to kakashi before pointedly saying.  
"cut the crap-your summons are dogs, he-"  
"she"  
raising an eyebrow as he was suddenly cut off with the correction, iruka's eye twitched.  
"she is a dog and you just admitted to knowing it"  
"of course i know her"  
"then she's one of your ninken!"  
kakashi shook his head before saying in a saddened tone.  
"she doesn’t have a master"  
looking to the ninken in front of him and to the jounin his eyes widened.  
"no no no no no no"  
smiling kakashi responded.  
"yep, she's all yours"  
with that kakashi disappeared down the hallway. smiling as he heard iruka calling his name only to be ignored. kakashi did so love pestering the man. he'd figured giving pakkun’s idea would be worth a shot after the day they’d had. he’d thought it over while he had been stewing in the living room for a while. he needed a way to get iruka to open up again and then it just hit him to do what he and pakkun had talked about. he summoned pakkun and told the little dog his plan. pakkun had nodded his head and quickly brought another ninken in front of kakashi for his consideration for the job.  
"she's loyal, smart, and playful just what the runt needs."  
"fantastic, thanks pakkun."  
the dog nodded before disappearing in a puff of smoke. kakashi looked down to the sleek dog in front of him, she was a beauty that was for sure. a nice shiny coat of black made her almost appear like a walking shadow. he couldn’t wait to see how iruka responded to her. he very quickly filled the ninken on what was going on and that he needed her help to not only look after the man, but try and get him to open up. with that he told her what room he was in and said go get him. he quickly returned to his seat and waited. it wasn’t even five minutes later when he heard the confused voice of the chunin calling his name.  
smiling to himself as he came back to the present kakashi reclined in his chair and pulled out his favorite book. it wasn’t more than a couple minutes later that the chunin joined him in the living room, the black dog following him.  
"take her back"  
"nope"  
"what do you mean nope, im not a dog person, im not an anything person for that matter."  
smiling behind his book kakashi replied.  
"you'll learn"  
mouth hanging open iruka couldn’t believe the gall of the jounin before him. he couldn’t just force him to have a ninken, could he?  
"no really you need to take her back, im not that good with animals."  
"you teach them all the time"  
iruka balked in confusion for a moment before he scowled at the jounin.  
"very funny, children are different"  
"no not really, they misbehave, need lots of attention, have to be taught everything, and watched constantly to make sure they don’t do something to hurt themselves. pretty much the same thing"  
iruka was beyond irritated now, not only was kakashi saying his children were animals, but he was demanding that he take care of this dog, he'd never had a dog.  
"but-"  
"no buts, she stays. besides i think she likes you"  
looking down to the dog iruka saw that she had laid down beside him while he was talking with kakashi. looking back up to the jounin he muttered.  
"fine, but im gonna train her to piss on your sheets"  
the chunin stormed over to his chair and huffed as he crossed his arms. even the irritated chunin couldn’t ignore the fact that the dog got up and followed him over to his chair before laying down once more. kakashi smirked at the chunin before suggesting.  
"that would be impressive, you might want to try with fetch first though"  
"bite me"  
laughing kakashi went back to reading, he had no doubts that the teacher would grow to care for the animal. he was just a caring person. it was only a couple minutes later when iruka asked.  
"whats her name?"  
smiling behind his book at the small victory, he answered.  
"she doesn’t have one"  
"what? i thought all your dogs had names"  
"oh they do-but like i said she's not mine"  
iruka snorted before asking.  
"then where did you get her the street corner?"  
chuckling kakashi informed the still irritated chunin.  
"pakkun brought her to me"  
the dry look he received from iruka told the jounin how unimpressed he was with the initial farce of ‘finding’ the dog.  
"so i have to come up with a name now too?"  
"that would be a good idea, unless you want to call her it for the rest of her life."  
frowning at the amused man, iruka looked at the solid black creature sitting in front of him. she was beautiful, but he didn’t know quite how to react to this. why was kakashi giving him a dog? sighing he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. he was really beginning to hate today.  
kakashi read his book with a smile on his face. his plan was going off without a hitch so far. the chunin seemed to have given up getting rid of her and was just pouting for now. at least now he knew that the chunin was going to be watched when kakashi wasn’t with him. the dog was smart, she wouldn’t allow the man to hurt himself without finding help for the man. of course he wasn’t about to tell iruka that. he was hoping that the dog would never need to get help for the chunin and she could simply be a companion to the man.  
"mayonaka"  
kakashi smiled, he knew the chunin would come around.  
"midnight huh, seems fitting she practically could disappear in the night"  
"i really don’t like you for this"  
the chunin muttered. kakashi chuckled a little before saying.  
"you've stated that a couple times today, but im a stubborn man so i'll ignore it again"  
kakashi heard the man sigh and flipped another page in his book. they had a lot of setbacks today, but he was starting to believe that they were inching forward with some progress. he would have to be sure to tell the hokage about the latest developments when he saw her next. it also brought up when he could tear himself away from iruka, he trusted his ninken to guard the man, but a part of him still didn’t want to leave anything to chance. with the chunin refusing to go back to therapy and becoming a civilian to avoid being forced to go there, there was little to be done in regards to keeping the man out of trouble. kakashi knew that with the chunin no longer being his ‘mission’ he would have to return to a normal work load which meant leaving iruka alone for extended periods of time. he could only hope that the ninken would do her job and keep the man safe for him when he couldn’t be present himself. kakashi looked up from his book when he heard iruka ask him.  
"how many ninken do you have?"  
smirking beneath his mask kakashi answered back casually.  
"i have eight on my team right now, but i could always add more if i needed too"  
iruka was about to ask another question when kakashi beat him to it.  
"what snakes are you able to summon?"  
iruka balked at the sudden question about his own summons and then thought a moment, he could summon any of them,but it didn’t mean they were going to listen to him. snakes were very proud creatures. telling kakashi this he explained that if he summoned a snake like manda, he would surely be killed by the summons. a moment later he added.  
"i always stuck to the smaller snakes that were much easier to please. they were just as effective as the larger ones and were less rude once they got to know me"  
"so some of them listened to you?"  
"yeah, i have a few that don’t seem to mind me much. especially if i promise them a rat or something"  
kakashi made a face upon hearing that, iruka was initially apprehensive upon seeing it until he realized with the man’s next comment it was the face of having to put up with the same thing.  
"my dogs are the same way, they groan about everything unless there's a steak in it for them"  
iruka laughed, the summons might be different species but it seemed they all thought with their stomachs.   
"you know you could always get a different contract"  
iruka smiled at kakashi, he of course knew that, but for one reason or another he'd never bothered with it. it wasn’t like he was going to need the summons a lot while he was teaching. he hardly ever went on missions anymore so there really wasn’t much threat to himself. of course with his new lot in life as a civilian it meant even less of a chance of him needing the use of a summons. unless he ordered the snakes to bite him, which he had done in the past. for some reason, they seemed to understand him when he asked for their help in dying. they never questioned if he really meant it, only did as asked and wished him well before disappearing. shaking himself out of his dark thoughts once more, iruka answered kakashi.  
"i know, i guess i just hold onto them cause its one of the last things i have from my genin days."  
kakashi nodded to the chunin. for one reason or another the man was attached to his lethal summons and it wouldn’t do good to argue with him about it. so instead he went back to flipping through his book. iruka took the time to look at his new ninken, mayonaka seemed happy just sitting at his feet. reaching down he stroked the soft fur. the dog seemed to enjoy it because its sleek tail started thumping on the wooden floor. smiling at her iruka scratched behind an ear before speaking to kakashi again.  
"can she talk?"  
"no i don’t think so, she hasn’t spoken to me at least and pakkun didn’t say she could. keep in mind though they have other ways of being annoying when they don’t have a voice."  
iruka snorted at the ninja before smiling again for some reason iruka was a little upset that she couldn’t speak to him, but in other ways glad that he wouldn’t have to explain himself every couple minutes to a curious dog. looking across the room he watched kakashi read for a bit, iruka wasn’t sure what was going to happen now that he was being forced to live with the man. the little plot against him by the hokage and the jounin wasn’t permanent iruka knew that, not even the hokage could prevent him from getting a new place once all the damage was fixed around their village. it was simply an exercise in patience of which iruka was the master of. you didn’t train twenty five kids a day for twelve years without growing a thick skin.  
getting up from his chair iruka went to go find a book of his own, mayonaka rose with him, smiling down at the dog iruka told her he'd be right back. the dog didn’t seem to believe him and continued to follow him down the hallway. kakashi smiled beneath his mask, he was a genius. flipping another page he let himself get lost in the story as the chunin and the black dog returned, iruka holding a new book in his hand. retaking his seat iruka watched as mayonaka curled up beside his chair, nodding his head he opened the book he was going to start reading and flipped through the introduction to the first pages of instruction.  
the night was quiet for them, both staying engrossed in their books. occasionally iruka would reach down and pet mayonaka on the head as he read, in the end they ate dinner in relative silence and iruka excused himself for the evening shortly after. the dog following him down the hallway. kakashi only stayed up a little longer. making his way down the hallway he was surprised that the door was partially open to iruka’s room, peeking in around the door kakashi smiled, mayonaka was curled up on the bed besides the sleeping chunin. her head cocked up when he put his head through the door, but laid back down once she recognized who it was.  
"good girl"  
the jounin whispered before leaving the two to sleep as he went to climb into his own bed.


	14. owning a ninken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka gets to spend some one on one time with his new ninken and kakashi prepares for his first mission away from the chunin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> final chapter of the fourth of july extravaganza. hope you guys enjoy all four chapters. i'll be back to my usual two chapters a day tomorrow, so dont get used to this...it was just a treat for today. keep writing all those lovely comments, its a real boost to know people like where the story is going and enjoy the humor and angst that i manage to somehow control into a plot.

iruka woke up slowly, stretching in bed he jolted a little when his hand came into contact with something warm and soft. then he remembered kakashi giving him the ninken. looking over to his side he smiled as the dog raised her head upon his movement.  
"good morning"  
the dogs tail thumped on the bed in response. chuckling iruka climbed out of bed and gathered the necessary things to go take a shower. as he walked over towards the door he saw mayonaka get up to follow him.  
"no-stay"  
the dog whined, but laid down as told. the chunin smiled at her and continued down the hallway. iruka took his shower in peace and returned to the bedroom to put his dirty laundry in the hamper, the dog must have missed him in the short time he was away, because she jumped off the bed and circled him a couple times her tail wagging. reaching down he patted her head as he went through his morning ritual.  
"come on girl, its time for tea"  
they quietly walked down the hallway and into the kitchen to prepare his morning cup of tea.  
kakashi woke when the water turned on, silently cursing the chunin's need for getting up early he threw back the covers and got his stuff together so he could take his own shower. he waited until he heard iruka back in his room to walk down the hallway and shut the bathroom door. he was curious how the man had slept with the dog at his side, but figured he would hear all about it in a little while. smirking kakashi climbed into the shower and relished the hot water as he tried to wake himself up a bit more while getting used to his new roommates schedule.  
entering the living room, kakashi took in the sight before him. iruka was reading already, a cup of tea on the side table. mayonaka was laying beside him, patiently waiting for the man to give her any instructions. maybe he could convince iruka to give up the snake summons after a little time with the dog. that was a thought, smirking to himself kakashi wiped the smirk off of his face before he was caught scheming again. saying good morning to the chunin as he walked past to get his own cup of tea before relaxing in his chair. kakashi had things he needed to do today, but was wary about leaving iruka alone for the first time. it was only because of his ninken being with the man that he was even contemplating doing what was supposed to be a normal day for him. ultimately he ended up glancing at the clock as the time neared for his meeting. sighing he got the chunin's attention.  
"i have a meeting soon, i'll only be gone a little bit"  
iruka nodded before going back to his book. kakashi sighed, he wasn’t sure if he should say anything more to the chunin. so instead he spoke to the dog.  
"take care of iruka okay?"  
the dog gave a happy yip and thumped her tail a couple times on the floor. smiling behind his mask kakashi saw the glare from the school teacher.  
"go-i'll be fine"  
nodding his head kakashi disappeared in a flash of smoke. he truly hoped that the chunin was right about that. once the smoke had cleared iruka looked down to his new companion.  
"how about we make some breakfast?"  
the dog followed him into the kitchen wordlessly.

*******

kakashi reappeared a couple blocks away, walking slowly through the village he made good time to meet his anbu team. they were going to train for a bit and he figured he could give them an update on iruka. entering the private training grounds, he quickly found his team waiting for him.  
"yo"  
they smiled at him, asuma was busy smoking but nodded his head at him. genma had his typical senbon in his mouth but smiled around the object.  
"so how are things at your place?"  
it was raidou who asked, shaking his head kakashi began to explain all that had happened over the last couple days with the chunin. the anbu stared at him as he told them about the chunin's fight with the hokage and his ability to fool the psych eval nin.  
"so he just passed? just like that?"  
kurenai questioned skeptically. kakashi nodded his head  
"yeah, made it look like the easiest thing in the world. didn’t show any signs that he was lying to the man, but he was."  
shaking their heads they asked how the hokage had taken that news. kakashi explained that iruka had handed in his hitae to become a civilian of the village to avoid therapy, but that he couldn’t get out of living with him for the foreseeable future thanks to the hokage’s quick thinking. they laughed a little when he told them how the teacher had repeatedly told him how he really didn’t like him.  
"sounds like you've been busy ne"  
"yeah, oh and i gave him a ninken last night"  
they stared at the shinobi in front of them. had they really just heard what they thought they heard.  
"you did what?"  
genma asked in a half laugh.  
"i had pakkun bring another ninken to me and had the dog follow iruka around. he named her and everything."  
the anbu started laughing at the poor teachers plight. it was obvious that kakashi was trying to torture the poor man with his help regardless if the man wanted it or not.  
"so you left him with the dog this morning"  
"yep"  
"is that wise?"  
"she knows to get help if he tries anything, but i don’t think he will. he seemed in a better mood today that was for sure."  
they glanced to one another before excepting the nin's explanation. they finally got ready to practice and left iruka in their teammates hands.

********

iruka nibbled at his toast, while flipping through yet another book. the only difference was that he was now in the library. mayonaka was sitting below him on the floor. occasionally he'd throw a piece of bread down for the dog. he didn’t like the crust anyways. his head bolted up when he heard the front door unlock. mayonaka stood, ready to defend her knew master, but laid back down when she caught the scent of kakashi. seeing the dogs reaction he figured there wasn’t an intruder in the house and that kakashi had just chosen to use the front door. he wasn’t disappointed, the ninja came to stand in the doorway sweat beading down his forehead.  
"yo"  
"hi-you look like you need another shower"  
kakashi nodded his head, he had no doubt about that.  
"yeah, we got a little carried away today."  
"oh so you were with your team?"  
"yeah, just training"  
iruka smiled at the jounin before offering.  
"go take a shower and i'll fix us some lunch"  
kakashi didn’t bother to argue with the chunin about him not needing to do such a thing as he was still technically a guest, but figured that would spoil the man’s good mood so he just nodded his head and went to hop into the shower. iruka put his book down and made his way to the kitchen, a black dog trotting behind him. kakashi got out of the shower and quickly changed into some fresh clothes. coming out of the bathroom he was rather surprised to find mayonaka sitting outside the door. fear grasped his heart. had the dog tried to get him and he hadn’t heard her? quickening his steps he made it to the living room only to sigh in relief. iruka was out on the balcony staring off into the distance. looking down to the dog he had to ask.  
"why'd you come find me huh?"  
luckily where the dog couldn’t answer him, iruka could.  
"i don’t think she likes the noise from the construction"  
looking to the chunin kakashi nodded his head. ninken were highly aware of their surroundings. it wouldn’t be too far fetched to believe that the dog had simply wanted a quieter environment. scratching behind a black ear, he walked up to stand beside iruka.  
"anything interesting?"  
iruka shrugged before pointing out into the distance.  
"looks like they almost have the wall tore down where it needs to be replaced"  
following the chunin's pointing hand he took in the changed appearance of the village. the damage was slowly being removed, the rebuilding would take time, but at least large demolished buildings were being replaced with open areas.  
"come on, lunch is probably getting cold"  
following the chunin back inside they went into the kitchen to fill their plates before coming back to their favorite spots. iruka asked how training had gone and kakashi said that it had been pretty standard if not a little boring. iruka smiled and retorted.  
"i highly doubt anbu training is boring"  
kakashi shrugged before replying.  
"mah it is, its not like facing a new opponent, i know what to expect from them"  
iruka smiled around a bite of food. hearing the man talk about his boredom made iruka wonder if he would be able to surprise the ninja in anyway. there was plenty that kakashi didn’t know about him. he was sure he could at least shock the nin with something he knew. he didn’t delude himself into thinking he could beat the copy nin, because iruka didn’t think he could, but shock him, yes. iruka was broken out of his thoughts when he saw something thrown at him, reflexively he caught the item. it was a set of keys. looking to kakashi with a puzzled look on his face he waited for the ninja to explain.  
"for the apartment, your going to be here a while, you might as well be able to come and go as you please."  
iruka thanked him before tucking them away in his flak jacket. for some reason he had thought that kakashi would try and keep him in the apartment the entire time, not that he would listen, but he was rather shocked that kakashi wasn’t going to try and stop him from doing as he pleased.  
" my team has a meeting later today with the hokage, but i shouldn’t be gone long."  
iruka nodded his head almost robotically after receiving the keys only to pause the motion and ask in a hesitant tone.  
"whats it about?"  
kakashi smirked, understanding the man’s skepticism in the meeting possibly being about him.  
"a mission-seems i don’t get that vacation after all"  
iruka smiled at the jounin. he knew how chaotic the missions desk could be, and if they needed an anbu team, he could only guess it was high ranking mission. unable to resist, iruka taunted the man.  
"too bad, me and mayonaka were going to go for a walk. guess you'll miss out"  
smiling at the chunin kakashi was glad that iruka was not going to whole himself up in the apartment.  
"well have fun on your walk."  
they sat in silence as they each respectively read from their books. it was only a couple hours later that kakashi excused himself for his meeting and waved to iruka.

***********

his team was fully assembled and ready to hear what the hokage had to say. she seemed to be frowning at something on the parchment she was reading before huffing and throwing it over her shoulder much to the anbu's amusement.  
"alright brats, you lot are going to go and intercept some wave ninja that was seen traveling back to wave from our mountain range. i want them caught"  
they bowed to their hokage and waited for further instructions.  
"they've got a head start on you, so your going to have to push yourselves to catch up to them. that said it shouldn’t take you more than a week to find them and drag them back here"  
the anbu nodded, it was kakashi who spoke up.  
"ano-what should i do about my house guest?"  
sighing tsunade shook her head.  
"cant be helped, he's a civilian now so there's nothing i can do about it. all we can do is have the villagers watch him when he's in public and hope he doesn’t do anything stupid while your gone."  
the silver haired nin didn’t like those odds but nodded his head. he wouldn’t go against his hokage's orders.  
"good, you leave tomorrow morning. dismissed."  
they all disappeared in identical puffs of smoke.

********   
reappearing in his apartment, kakashi wasn’t too surprised to find iruka gone, the chunin had said he was going to take his ninken for a walk. so he patiently waited for the ninja to return to tell him that he would be leaving. kakashi wondered how the chunin would take the news.

*******

iruka paced himself at a light jog, mayonaka stayed right at his side the entire time. they made their way to the outskirts of town into the more wooded area for some fresh air away from all the dust of the village under construction. finding a tree he liked, he sat down and took a breather, scratching behind one of the ninken's ears got him an eager tail thump. laughing at the dogs enthusiasm, iruka leaned back against the hard trunk of the tree. he'd missed this, just being able to go wherever he wanted and enjoy the sights and sounds of the village. iruka continued to pet the dog as he relaxed against the tree. she curled up beside him her head in his lap. smiling down to her he asked.  
"so, how about we teach you to fetch huh? apparently its the first step to training you to piss on his sheets when he pisses me off."  
the dog tilted her head but wagged her tail at the same time when she caught sight of the ball he had produced. iruka smirked at the sight of her apparent enthusiasm. she was eager to please him and that didn’t make the possibility of ruined sheets an improbability in kakashi’s future.

********

the sun had just started to set and kakashi was getting nervous. iruka had been gone the better half of the day. finally deciding he could take no more waiting the jounin stood to go get his sandals, only to pause when he heard someone running up the stairs. eyebrow raised kakashi smiled when he heard the lock disengage to his apartment. sitting back down he quickly pulled his book out, he didn’t want to let the teacher know that he had been about to go find him.   
"ohayo"  
smirking beneath his mask as he focused on his book, kakashi asked.  
"how was your walk?"  
he heard the chunin taking off his sandals and was surprised when the chunin laughed. the chunin quickly coming into view as kakashi raised his head from his book to see the man. his eyes widened at the sight of the chunin. he had cuts all over him, some still bleeding.  
"what-"  
"yeah, umm i think you should write a manual on how to care for ninken cause i am serious lacking in the skills department"  
raising an eyebrow he waited for the man to continue. that’s when he noticed the muddy ninken standing next to iruka. iruka glanced down to the ninken before sheepishly telling kakashi.  
"yeah, she kinda found a large puddle, must have liked the smell of it or something cause i had a hell of a time getting her out of it."  
smirking kakashi asked.  
"and the scratches?"  
"oh yeah, we were playing fetch and i decided to hide from her to see if she could locate me. i didn’t really expect her to pounce on me though and we fell into a brier patch"  
kakashi couldn’t help but laugh, this man seemed to be able to bring the best sort of entertainment to his life. iruka coughed before stating.  
"anyways. im gonna go get cleaned up and try and get her into the bathtub"  
kakashi nodded his head and wished him luck in his task. he was relieved that the man seemed to be in good spirits, the dog had apparently been the right choice for a companion for him. he continued to read and let out a couple chuckles when he heard the teacher arguing with the dog. then their was a loud thud followed by a splash, shaking his head kakashi turned the page of his book and idly wondered how long it would take iruka to get the ninken clean or if the chunin would admit defeat. it was nearly an hour later that a wet iruka came out with a much cleaner dog.  
"have fun?"  
the jounin ribbed. iruka glared at him a moment before glancing down to the dog at his side.  
"are all ninken afraid of being clean?"  
"not that i know of, she didn’t like the water?"  
"oh once i got her in she loved it, which was part of the problem i think... but getting her into it was another matter entirely"  
kakashi smiled to the man.  
"they all have different personalities and quirks"  
iruka nodded before taking his seat in his chair. mayonaka trotting to his side. kakashi rather liked the sight, maybe him being gone for a week wouldn’t be to bad for the man. iruka could bond with the dog while he was away. sighing kakashi decided it was time to inform iruka about his mission and see how things went. with any luck the chunin wouldn’t react poorly to the prospect of being alone.  
"ano-i have a mission"  
iruka looked up to him and tilted his head to the side.  
"oh"  
"yeah my team and i leave in the morning. we shouldn’t be gone more than a week, but if you'd like i could find somewhere else for you to stay so you wouldn’t be alone"  
iruka waved him off.  
"no, i'll be fine here. im used to being alone and besides i have her so i wont really be alone"  
kakashi nodded his head. at least the teacher seemed to be taking the news rather well.  
"so is it dangerous?"  
"mah, shouldn’t be too hard, especially with all of us"  
iruka smiled.  
"that’s good, what time do you leave?"  
"early, i'll be up and gone before your outta bed i assume"  
iruka nodded, he figured as much but had wanted to check.  
"so what will you do while im gone?"  
iruka thought a moment before replying  
"probably try and get her to listen to me, i got her to fetch today, but that was about it."  
kakashi nodded, training ninken took time and a lot of effort on the human side of things.  
"she'll catch on pretty fast i imagine. any idea what your going to train her for?"  
iruka frowned at the jounin before asking.  
"what do you mean?"  
smirking kakashi informed the man.  
"ano. pakkun is my tracker and bull is the muscle. what's she gonna specialize in"  
looking to the black dog iruka had to ask.  
"i have no clue, what do you think she's good at?"  
"well she's a medium sized dog but not built bulky so she could easily get into tight spaces and she's bound to be a fast runner. she could easily be a retrieval hound or a tracker."  
iruka looked down at his new companion. he hadn’t really thought about giving her a job, but it made sense to have her trained like all other ninken.  
"i guess i'll just get used to her a bit and then decide"  
"that’s a good move. the dogs normally will give you a hint at what they like to do, from then on out its just training."  
iruka smiled, scratching behind mayonaka's ear as he turned his attention to kakashi.  
"i wanted to ask, is there anything i could do while your away, besides keep the apartment tidy that is?"  
"nope, your on relax duty"  
frowning at the jounin he stated.  
"im gonna be bored outta my skull"  
kakashi laughed before stating.  
"consider it training for your new life as a civilian."  
iruka stuck out his tongue at the laughing jounin. before wondering about something a little more important.  
"umm i know you've locked everything away and all, but im gonna need some knives for cooking"  
kakashi froze a bit, he'd completely forgot about that.  
"ah, yeah- i suppose you would. you could always live off ramen until i get back"  
the blank stare he received was only reinforced by iruka stating.  
"im not naruto"  
"true, was worth a shot. alright i'll dig them out and leave them in the drawer next to the stove. all i ask is that you be careful"  
iruka nodded his head at the concerned jounin. iruka couldn’t know if he was going to try anything while the man was away or not. it always just happened so spontaneously.  
"well lets go fix dinner, after your exciting day you must be hungry"  
"ass"  
iruka muttered as the jounin laughed at him on his way to the kitchen. they were able to put a nice dinner and relaxed together in the living room. iruka placed a bowl of water and some dog food in a bowl for mayonaka who seemed to be a very hungry dog.  
"i guess she was hungry?"  
kakashi nodded as he watched the dog inhale her food.  
"yeah some ninken are just like that. just make sure she doesn’t find the food or you'll be exercising her for a month trying to get the extra weight off of her"  
iruka nodded, he didn’t want that. they ate in silence, not really needing to talk to one another to enjoy each others company. when they were finished they cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and returned to the living room. they stayed there until it started to get late, yawning iruka stood.  
"well im going to bed, good luck on your mission and be careful"  
"of course, good luck in training her"  
iruka nodded his head before walking down the hallway, mayonaka following close behind him. kakashi didn’t stay up very much longer, he knew he was going to have a long week ahead of him especially with the added fact that he would be worrying about iruka the entire time he was gone.

*******

anbu gear on and his kits stored away, kakashi locked up the other weapons before exiting his room, peering into iruka’s room found the man laying on his stomach. mayonaka raised her head at him.  
"be good for him ne? take good care of him"  
the dog laid her head back down and shut her eyes as kakashi left. he wouldn’t be back for an entire week and he could only hope he wouldn’t return home to chaos.

*********

iruka lounged in bed, just staring at the ceiling while he combed his fingers through mayonaka's fur. he knew kakashi was gone and although a part of him was relieved to have privacy again, another part was lonely at the aspect of being on his own again. sighing he got out of bed and went through his morning ritual of catching a shower and making breakfast with tea. he stayed at the apartment, reading for most of the day, until a knock at the door had him and mayonaka rising to see who was waiting for them on the other side. opening the door iruka froze, the dog beside him raised her hackles and growled at her masters response. ibiki raised a scarred eyebrow to the teacher and dogs reaction to him, but paid it no mind.  
"come with me"  
iruka could barely get in enough air to be able to ask.  
"what for?"  
ibiki turned back around and regarded the teacher for a minute before stating.  
"because i said so"  
the man’s tone of voice told iruka that it really wasn’t a request so much as an order. knowing the man had control of numerous anbu and that no doubt some of them were watching, prepared to intervene on their superiors behalf iruka sighed. iruka locked up the apartment and knelt by the dog telling her silently that everything was alright and to stop growling at ibiki. the dog quieted, but didn’t seem to keen on being next to the man.  
"nice dog, didn’t know you had a pet"  
iruka couldn’t resist the urge and before he knew it he was retorting shortly.  
"there's a lot about me you don’t know"  
the man laughed a little which only further angered the chunin. they made their way through town a crossed the rooftops and it wasn’t until he saw the familiar offices of the interrogation squad that iruka began to have doubts as to why he was once again in ibiki's presence. was he to be interrogated again...without kakashi and his team present? they entered quietly and although people greeted ibiki, the interrogations officer didn’t speak back to them. iruka kept his head down, not wanting to gain any more attention to himself than needed. ibiki opened a door and motioned for iruka to enter. taking a deep breath the chunin did as he was told.  
to his surprise it wasn’t an interrogation room, it was brightly lit and there was a couple desks around the room with bookcases that were filled with scrolls and books. looking to ibiki in confusion, iruka watched the man skeptically before asking.  
"why am i here?"  
ibiki motioned that he follow him, going over to one of the larger desks that had quite a few scrolls taped down to their surface ibiki nonchalantly asked.  
"can you read that?"  
looking to what the man was pointing at, iruka peered down at the writing for a minute before it dawned on him. it was the wave encryption code. looking up to ibiki he asked.  
"what is this about?"  
the man frowned back at the chunin before demanding to know.  
"can you or can you not read it?"  
frowning back at the man iruka looked back down to the writing before responding.  
"yeah i can read it"  
"your parents taught you"  
came the automatic assumption. iruka sighed before nodding.  
"yeah, they wanted me to know that i could always return to wave when i was older if i didn’t end up liking it here. so they taught me all about it, that way i'd have a good job if i ever returned. they were adamant that i have options and though they didn’t want to live in wave anymore, they left it to me to decide when i was older if i wished to remain here or return to wave."  
looking up to the interrogations officer iruka felt the need to state.  
“i never wanted to live in wave. konoha is my home.”  
ibiki nodded his head before reaching over and grabbing three closed scrolls and held them out to the chunin.  
"umm what?"  
"take them, your to decode them and write your findings down."  
taking the scrolls iruka continued to look at ibiki dumbfounded.  
"umm im a civilian now, i don’t know if the hokage told you-"  
the man’s scarred face smirked back at him.  
"oh she told me all about your little stunt"  
smiling a little iruka couldn’t help but have a little pride in himself.  
"however, we are at war-your knowledge is invaluable to our side of the battle. there is no one else in the village with the extensive knowledge on waves writing, congratulations you just got reinstated as a shinobi of konoha and hired by the interrogations team. i want those done by tonight"  
with that ibiki stormed out of the room leaving an even more confused iruka standing stupidly in the middle of the room. looking down to mayonaka he muttered.  
"i thought i was supposed to be relaxing"


	15. unknown talents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka finds a new purpose for himself when he's offered (forced) to help someone he'd rather stay away from. kakashi and his team return from their mission only to come across iruka's new arrangements. kakashi and iruka also get the chance to test each other as the pair train with each other for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so sorry about the late update and really really sorry that this will be the only chapter today. im really tired and frankly im cruel in wanting you guys to have to wait to see how the cliffhanger in this chapter goes. i promise to upload two chapters tomorrow. they might not be up until the afternoon as i have some stuff going on, but they will be up. 
> 
> have a lot of things going on at the moment, hopefully by the weeks end it will all be settled and i can continue posting without all this stupid drama going on in my life. hopefully the fact that i gave you guys four chapters yesterday makes up for only one chapter today. 
> 
> please dont kill me for the cliffhanger...it'll be worth it, i promise you.

they were tired and muddy, they continuously had to struggle with their captives who were fighting tooth and nail not to be brought back to konoha, which just irritated them all the more. finally seeing the gates to their proud city they all took a deep breath. yanking their captives along they headed for the interrogations office, they'd drop off their captives and report to the hokage before being released from their mission. entering the black building, they weren’t surprised to see people running around like crazy, it was always like this. they quickly found the admittance officer and were told to take them down to the basement where ibiki was waiting for them. escorting the ninja down there, they were all surprised when a black dog came trotting up to them and wagged its tail at kakashi, his eyes widened under the wolf mask, he knew this dog. kneeling he asked.  
"where is he?"  
the dog trotted off down the hall. and the team followed behind it, they could find ibiki after they figured out why the chunin would be back in the interrogations office and why he was on the level for the interrogation of wave again. sighing kakashi was dreading finding out what kind of trouble the man had gotten himself into now. coming around the corner they were rather stunned to see iruka yelling at ibiki, the interrogations officer not seeming to mind the irate bickering of the former school teacher. ibiki signed some papers and shoved them back at the teacher before noticing them.  
"ah good your back, room three and four please"  
the nin nodded before complying with ibiki's orders it wasn’t a moment later that they were standing before the interrogations officer and a very peeved looking iruka.  
"umm whats going on here?"  
kakashi had to know what the hell was going on around him, iruka should have been at his apartment. not standing next to ibiki with his hands full of scrolls.  
"im working, and you?"  
ibiki's hot tone made kakashi want to thump his head against a wall.  
"yes, but what is he doing here?"  
kakashi pointed towards the chunin,glancing to the chunin ibiki smiled before turning to face the group of anbu.  
"we found a new use for the school teacher, didn’t we iruka?"  
the man glared at his new boss, he really would like to hit the man. instead he took a deep breath and walked past the group of anbu, his dog trailing behind him. iruka had no doubt that ibiki would fill them in and he had better get started on the new scrolls if he ever wanted to see his bed again.  
staring after the school teacher they returned their gaze to ibiki.  
"the hokage had a suspicion that iruka might have some more information about wave, so we put him to the test. turns out the man can decipher wave encryption codes-his parents taught him as a child in case he ever wanted to return to wave. so we have him decrypting information for us. he's been reinstated as a shinobi and now works for me"  
the anbu just gaped at their boss, they had hired iruka? with that ibiki turned around and walked off leaving the group of anbu to collect their thoughts. it was asuma who suggested they report to the hokage before trying to find the chunin to ask him what had gone on while they were away. with that they disappeared in puffs of smoke.

********

iruka was pouring over the new scroll he’d been given a few short hours ago, scratching at his scar only to pause when he noticed movement. looking up he saw kakashi and his anbu team, still in full gear standing on the other side of his desk. blinking a moment the chunin finally managed to say.  
"uh...hi"  
"this is a change"  
iruka glanced towards the hawk masked anbu and snorted.  
"you have no idea"  
the chunin sighed. leaning back in his chair iruka regarded the anbu carefully. other than being muddy and most likely tired they appeared to be fine. deciding to ask for himself, iruka pried.   
"so how'd the mission go?"  
"their locked up downstairs"  
iruka nodded his head, he hadn’t doubted that they would catch whoever the hokage sent them after. the men he’d seen the anbu throw into rooms had to have been their targets.  
"well that’s good i guess, well not for them, but you know what i mean"  
the anbu nodded, kurenai came closer and inspected the papers strewn across the mans desk. it was all gibberish to her.  
"you can read that?"  
looking down to what she was pointing at iruka smiled and nodded.  
"yeah, that’s about a shipment of weapons that were most likely going to intercept soon...uh well someone is, maybe not you?"  
kurenai looked up to the chunin, smiling beneath her mask despite the fact that it was lost on the man. the anbu just continued to stare at the chunin as he stared back at them. iruka was starting to get uncomfortable under the shinobi's stares and scratched his scar.  
"what?"  
kakashi shook his head, he had only been gone a week and somehow the school teacher had found himself hired by the interrogations team.  
"so you've been reinstated?"  
pointing to his hitae that was once again on the man’s forehead, iruka nodded.  
"yeah civilians cant work here."  
"and you just agreed to work here even after what happened."  
looking to genma iruka shrugged before honestly answering.  
"ibiki threatened to lock me up for the rest of my life for withholding valuable information to the hokage."  
"so he threatened you?"  
kakashi wasn’t too happy about the circumstances.  
"well he sure didn’t ask for my opinion...and for that matter i’ve never known that man to ask for things."  
the anbu were at a loss, they weren’t sure if they should be happy that the man now seemed to have some purpose again or if he was being forced to work with people who had helped to conspire to his own torture.  
"how long have you been here?"  
iruka shrugged before answering.  
"the day you guys left, ibiki showed up at the apartment and dragged me here. put a scroll in front of me and asked if i could read it. when i said yes he told me to have it done by the end of the day and left me in a room"  
yeah that sounded like ibiki. smiling the anbu asked how he had been doing.  
"some of its pretty repetitive, normal war time missives of where things need to be sent, but we've found out some of their motives for attacking and we think we know what their up to right now. if it turns out that were right, we could be looking at another assault"  
they didn’t like the sound of that, but at least this time they could prepare for it.  
"when do you get off work?"  
looking to the wolf mask iruka smiled, before reaching down and scratching his nin dogs ear.  
"not for a while, i don’t really have a set schedule yet, its pretty much stay here until i finish"  
kakashi frowned at that. iruka was smiling at them, but he could tell that the man was tired, he had bags under his eyes again.  
"when's the last time you slept?"  
iruka tilted his head at the curious anbu before sighing, he thought a moment before saying in a calculated tone that showed to the anbu around him just how unsure iruka was of his answer.  
"two days ago?"  
the anbu frowned, ibiki was definitely taking advantage of his position over the man. ibiki knew iruka was scared of him and was using it to his advantage to keep the man working at all hours.  
"when'd you last eat"  
iruka smiled at that question, something at least he was sure of.  
"this morning at breakfast-surprisingly the cafeteria here isn’t half bad"  
the anbu smiled at the school teacher. iruka knew what they were doing, they were worried about him, but he actually felt pretty good.  
"you guys off to go sleep now?"  
"yeah, that’s been our plan for the last three days."  
chuckling iruka nodded before stating that he should get back to work. the anbu nodded and headed for the door, kakashi stayed behind. his teammates just smiled behind their masks and left without him. iruka tilted his head at kakashi.  
"what?"  
"how have you been?"  
"good, though i don’t think mayonaka likes ibiki much, she growls at him a lot"  
kakashi laughed.  
"she picks up on your emotions"  
iruka nodded at that.  
"yeah i figured as much, but he lets me keep her here while i work which is nice."  
kakashi nodded, he had no doubt that it was the hokage’s doing that allowed the man to keep his ninken with him. as tired as he was, kakashi wanted to know what the man had been up too, but he was cut off by iruka.  
"i really need to get back to this if i want to be able to come home tonight. you should go rest and i'll see you later ok? oh and theirs leftovers in the fridge if you get hungry"  
smiling behind his mask kakashi let the man get back to his work. he left silently taking one last look at the man before he went.

**************************************

kakashi ended up sleeping for five hours, when he got up finally and found the leftovers he looked at the clock, it was getting late. he wondered if iruka was going to get done with all the work he had on his desk when he visited him. taking his food out to the living room kakashi ate in peace before reading a bit. it was some two hours later that he heard the door and iruka going.  
"i know i know your hungry hold on let me get the door open first"  
smiling kakashi leaned back in his chair to watch the man come into the room, the ninken circling him as he walked. iruka waved at him before going to get mayonaka her dinner. the dog dived in with gusto which made iruka laugh.  
"your gonna choke if you eat like that"  
"mah you should have named her naruto"  
scowling at the ninja, iruka collapsed into his chair. it had been a long day and he was grateful to be back in the apartment.  
"tough day?"  
"long day, my eyes get tired reading all those documents"  
kakashi nodded, before getting up and fetching the man a cup of tea. iruka accepted it gratefully.  
"you catch up on your sleep?"  
"five hours worth"  
iruka smiled at him.  
"that’s where im headed after this"  
kakashi frowned upon hearing that.  
"your not going to eat anything?"  
iruka shook his head before taking another sip of tea.  
"no, its too late for me to eat and im really tired. so how long do you guys have off before your off chasing people again?"  
kakashi shrugged, the hokage hadn’t given them any information on when she might need them next so it was safe to assume that they had the next couple days off.  
"what about you? when do you get a day off?"  
iruka shrugged behind his tea cup. kakashi frowned.  
"ma its not that bad kakashi, besides i don’t have to be around ibiki much which is nice. i mostly stay in my office deciphering scrolls."  
kakashi huffed a bit before protesting.  
"you should still get time to yourself, to rest"  
iruka smiled at the ninja, he appreciated the concern, but he really didn’t want to rock the boat with ibiki. the man held a lot over him and he didn’t want to see any of that information spilled. getting up iruka stretched before saying goodnight to the silver haired ninja. kakashi said goodnight and watched as the black dog followed its master down the hallway. kakashi would need to have a little chat with ibiki tomorrow.

***********

iruka groaned as his alarm went off, it was so early. sighing he forced himself to get out of bed and start his day. the whole time he was being watched by mayonaka, the dog didn’t quite understand why her master chose to get up this early,but had figured it had something to do with the scarred man that made her master afraid. she didn’t like him. hearing her master climb into the shower she hopped down from the bed and looked down the hallway, the door to the bathroom was shut, no matter how much she whined he wouldn’t leave it open so she could watch over him. letting out a perturbed snort she pushed open the door opposite of their room, the scent of the other male catching her nose. trotting over she jumped up onto the bed and nuzzled his hand. lazily it came up to pet her head.  
"mmm what are you doing in here?"  
opening his eye kakashi looked around until it landed on the dog vying for his attention. when he heard the water going he realized what must have happened. smirking at the pouting dog kakashi said.  
"he kick you out of the bathroom huh?"  
the dog set her head down on his chest in a huff. laughing a little he petted the dog before saying.  
"he's a little shy about those kinds of things, just bare with him ne"  
the dog nuzzled against his chest and settled down for a couple more minutes of sleep. glancing to his clock kakashi sighed, it was too early to be up. was ibiki really needing iruka to start so early? or was he just trying to use the man. one way or another he'd find out today. he had no doubts that iruka was still teetering on an edge and the slightest thing could push him over one side or the other. kakashi didn’t want ibiki to be the cause of the man breaking down again. hearing the water shut off he listened as iruka got ready for work. the door came open and kakashi heard iruka call out for the dog, she perked her ears up but didn’t seem to want to move. chuckling the jounin called out to the chunin. when his door opened a little he saw the confusion on the chunin’s face upon finding his dog laying on kakashi.  
"i think she's rebelling against getting up this early"  
iruka smiled, shaking his head he glanced to the clock before saying.  
"you can keep her for the day if she doesn’t want to get out of bed, but i have to get going"  
kakashi subtly nudged the dog and she took the hint and ran after the retreating chunin. he felt better leaving the teacher under the ninken’s watchful eyes. turning over kakashi went back to sleep, he wasn’t about to go talk to the interrogations officer this early in the morning.

*********

opening his eye, kakashi listened to the quiet apartment, it took him a minute to register that iruka wasn’t there and that he was at work. getting out of bed, he quickly took a shower, ate and got ready to go see how the chunin was doing at his new job. he of course wasn’t about to tell the chunin why he was really there. he knew enough about iruka now to understand that the chunin might not take tot he idea of kakashi talking to ibiki on his behalf. so he’d do what he did best, avoid the topic at hand. disappearing in a puff of smoke kakashi reappeared just outside the interrogations office. sticking his hands in his vest the jounin walked leisurely into the building. like always it was chaos, people running this way and that to return reports or transfer important information. he was glad he was just a fighter and didn’t have to do much paperwork. walking down the hall kakashi decided to check in on iruka before he went on to talk with ibiki. knocking on the closed door that he now knew to be the chunin’s office, he was rather surprised when he didn’t hear anyone tell him to come in. carefully he opened the door, peering around the opening he took in the sight before him. mayonaka was watching him, but was laying beside the chunin’s feet who appeared to have fallen asleep at his desk. entering quietly kakashi took in the tired looking chunin's appearance. iruka had somehow managed to smear ink on his face and although it was quite an endearing sight, the jounin had no doubt that the chunin would just get frustrated with himself. kneeling down next to the dog he stated.  
"he's really exhausted isn’t he?"  
the dog glanced to her master and then to the jounin before laying back down. smiling at the dog he patted her head a couple times before taking his leave. quietly closing the door behind him. making his way down to the lower levels where he was sure to find the torture expert, kakashi was not overly shocked to see the man staring down some poor soul who had pissed him off. once ibiki saw him however he barked at the man to leave and nodded to the jounin.  
"something i can help you with?"  
"yeah actually, you got time to talk or is there someone you need to be maiming right now?"  
smirking at the wisecracking jounin ibiki nodded for the man to follow him. a couple doors down they entered a interrogation room, seemed fitting to kakashi.  
"whats up kakashi?"  
turning to face the man the jounin decided to get to the point.  
"your working him too hard"  
at first ibiki seemed confused, but it finally clicked in the mans head and he snorted before questioning.  
"are you his mother now?"  
frowning at the man kakashi shook his head.  
"no, but the hokage wants me to look out for him and i can tell he's being overworked."  
ibiki shrugged nonchalantly before replying  
"he hasn’t said anything"  
kakashi snorted at him a frown creasing his face.  
"you know damn well that he wouldn’t say anything to you even if he somehow managed to cut off his own arm. your the last person he wants to be around."  
ibiki shrugged.  
"that might be so, but i am his boss-he needs to learn to get over things. that’s what most of his problems stem from you realize, he pushes them away instead of dealing with the situation."  
kakashi sighed before stating.  
"you cant expect him to just realize your not going to hurt him again, you tortured him for information not even three weeks ago. he needs a set schedule like when he was teaching."  
ibiki considered saying no right away to the jounin in front of him, but he really didn’t want to get into a full out argument with the man. kakashi was one of his best anbu and ibiki wanted to keep the man on his good side for as long as possible.  
"i'll see what i can do"  
kakashi stared at him a little longer before nodding and heading for the door.  
"does he know your speaking on his behalf?"  
kakashi heard the subtle threat there.  
"no he does not, but considering he's currently passed out at his desk i don’t think he has room to argue with the fact that he’s exhausted and needs a break."  
ibiki frowned, maybe the copy nin was right. he needed iruka sharp to be able to decipher all the information they were getting, a misinterpretation could cost them dearly. sighing ibiki nodded his head.  
"take him home then, he can have the rest of the day off."  
kakashi smiled behind his mask, before stating.  
"good, he can catch up on some sleep and be ready to work tomorrow. you might want to consider letting him work from home though. this place is rather stuffy"  
the glare he got from the interrogations officer proved that the man wasn’t impressed with the idea. kakashi smirked.  
"im just saying, he's the only one who can read them so theirs no threat of the information getting out to anyone and it would help him relax"  
with that he left ibiki to think about what he had told the man. making his way back up to iruka’s office kakashi took a deep breath and entered the room. the jounin was rather shocked to find iruka awake and rubbing his eyes like he had a headache. the ink stain had been wiped away.  
"morning"  
opening his eyes iruka looked at him for a few moments before the stunned chunin asked.  
"what are you doing here?"  
"mah cant i come visit my favorite roommate?"  
iruka snorted before supplying.  
"im your only roommate"  
kakashi just continued to smile at him, iruka shook his head before going back to reading the phrase he was deciphering.   
" when your done with that we can go"  
iruka’s head bolted up to look at the jounin in confusion.  
"go?"  
kakashi nodded his head.  
"go where?"  
"back to the apartment"  
iruka tilted his head a bit before reminding the jounin.  
"umm i just got here like two hours ago, im not scheduled to leave until after six"  
kakashi waved his hand as if that meant nothing.  
"maybe you were given the rest of the day off?"  
frowning at the jounin iruka asked.  
"what did you do?"  
kakashi was silent a moment before he fessed up.  
"i had a small chat with ibiki"  
iruka groaned, putting his head in his hands, that was the last thing he needed was that man thinking he couldn’t do his job.  
"come now its not so bad, i just told him he was overworking you, your tired."  
"im fine"  
the chunin muttered.  
"you were asleep at your desk when i got here"  
iruka looked up at him in shock, he hadn’t known kakashi had come in earlier. sighing iruka leaned back in his chair.  
"you could have just woken me up"  
"that was an option, but i liked my idea better."  
iruka glared at him some more, much to kakashi's amusement. the final straw however was when kakashi directed his attention to mayonaka.  
"he's working too much isn’t he?"  
the dog let out a bark, startling iruka in his chair, he'd never heard her bark before, looking around the table he saw the dog wagging her tail for kakashi.  
"traitor"  
looking back up to the jounin, iruka frowned at the smug look on kakashi's face.  
"of course she's gonna side with you, you have her contract"  
"that hasn’t stopped pakkun from ratting me out to he hokage on numerous occasions"  
iruka snorted, kakashi probably deserved it. when he saw that kakashi wasn’t about to go anywhere, he sighed and gathered up some papers to put away. once that was done the chunin nodded his head and started to follow kakashi out the door. they were walking down the hallway when someone called out iruka's name. turning around yielded a young women with a stack of papers.  
"oh im glad i caught you, ibiki-san said you were leaving for the rest of the day. we got some new information from one of the wave ninja downstairs and ibiki would like you to go over it when you have the time."  
holding out a scroll to iruka, the school teacher took it before asking.  
"he wants me to take this home?"  
she nodded her head.  
"yes, he said it might take a while to get through all the information in there and that you should have something to focus on when your not here"  
kakashi frowned, leave it to ibiki to find a way to make the poor man work on his day off and keep him busy when not officially at work. iruka took the scroll and thanked the girl before turning back around to find kakashi standing there smiling.  
"that was weird"  
iruka muttered as he walked past the copy nin and out the door into the fresh air. kakashi followed the ninja and his dog. they were only a couple blocks away from the apartment when iruka spoke up.  
"so what are you plans for today?"  
"don’t really have any-why did you want to do something?"  
iruka shrugged, he was wide awake now regardless of how tired he actually was. he figured he could work on the scroll later in the day and go to bed early to be able to start his shift tomorrow.  
"alright, well we could go train for a bit"  
iruka started laughing causing kakashi to raise a brow at the teacher.  
"and what pray tell is so funny?"  
"you want me to try and train with you, are you nuts you'll eat me alive"  
"mah, don’t worry i wont cheat or anything"  
iruka just continued to laugh as they walked down the street. finally kakashi spoke up again.  
"hey i keep my word, i wont cheat. besides i've never gotten a chance to see you fight"  
iruka looked back at him and shrugged.  
"its been a while since i faced off against someone one on one. normally its twenty five to one and im not allowed to use weapons."  
smirking at the chunin's apparent humor kakashi continued.  
"still, it'd be fun and you can show me what your capable of"  
iruka thought a moment before he sighed and finally gave in and nodded much to kakashi's pleasure. they quickly changed directions and started for one of the training grounds. coming through a partition of tree's iruka turned to face him.  
"alright any rules?"  
kakashi thought about it a moment, he seriously doubted that the chunin could hurt him, but he wasn’t about to go easy on the man just because of that.  
"not that i can think of"  
"do i get any weapons?"  
oh right, iruka wasn’t armed. laughing a little kakashi scratched the back of his head.  
"heheh oops. yeah."  
pulling out some kunai he handed them to the teacher. the jounin made sure that he counted how many he gave him, he'd count again when they were done. iruka tucked the kunai into his vest and nodded.  
"alright, im ready whenever you are"  
smiling kakashi reached up to uncover his left eye when iruka shouted.  
"hey no fair, you said you wouldn’t cheat."  
smiling at the argumentative chunin he responded.  
"i'd be at a distinct disadvantage if i only used one eye"  
the frown from the chunin proved that iruka wasn’t buying it as the whole village knew that he fought on a daily basis with only one eye. smirking kakashi added.  
"besides were just training, i promise not to genjitsu you alright?"  
iruka nodded, that seemed fair enough. nodding his head, kakashi pulled his hitae up unveiling the sharingan eye. blinking a couple times he nodded when he was ready. they both took defensive stances, ready for the other to launch themselves at each other. when no one moved iruka decided to take his chance and quickly did an earth jutsu to strike up a cloud of dust to make it hard for them to see one another. kakashi was impressed, the teacher knew to reduce visibility to avoid detection from the sharingan. it wouldn’t work necessarily, but it was smart. when the cloud of dust settled, the teacher was no where to be seen. it seemed the man wanted a chase. launching himself into the nearest tree kakashi searched for any movement, or chakra signature. all was quiet. turning around on the branch he was balancing on, the jounin had to duck as a kunai lodged itself in the tree where his head had been.  
the teacher could aim, but he should have known better than to give away his position like that. smiling kakashi ran towards the direction the kunai had come from. coming around a tree he avoided a punch and kicked the chunin's feet out from under him in a sweeping motion. iruka quickly did a handstand to stabilize himself and landed a few branches below him. launching himself at the chunin kakashi wasn’t about to let the man have time to plan anything. iruka dodged his punch and darted into the underbrush trying to hide himself again,but kakashi was right on his tail. iruka turned around and threw another kunai at the rapidly approaching ninja, kakashi deflected it with ease, but had to jump out of the way as another came right after it. the teacher was using all the skills he normally taught his children and nothing more. kakashi frowned when he realized this, the chunin was fighting him with only the skills of a genin. shaking his head kakashi continued the chase, he could always lecture the man later.  
iruka refused to use some of his more darker talents. he would either hold off the man or get pounded into the ground trying. hiding behind a tree, iruka waited.  
"come on iruka you can do better than that"  
the jounin taunted from his perch in a tree. iruka ground his teeth together, of course he could do better, but that didn’t mean he wanted too. reaching into his vest he pulled out another kunai, looking down at the shiny metal object he thought about what he could possibly do with it.  
kakashi had lost iruka in the tree's and was waiting for any sign of movement. finally he saw some out of the corner of his eye. smiling he took off after the blur. only to freeze when he felt a wire snap around his leg, looking down he realized his error a little too late. he was instantly hoisted by the wire lead upwards to smack into the wide trunk of a tree before an exploding tag came to rest right in front of his face. eyes widening kakashi quickly performed the replacement jutsu and got away from the explosion. he had to give iruka credit that was not something he had been expecting from the chunin. landing on a tree branch he took in the now half exploded tree. the embers floating through the air. taking a moment to collect himself he only had a moment to avoid the kick to his head, twisting around kakashi was able to land a punch to the chunin's side before the man distanced himself again from him. standing a few yards away from one another they analyzed each other. iruka was rubbing where he had just been punched but overall didn’t seem to be tiring.  
"ready to surrender?"  
iruka snorted at him before jumping up into the tree and disappearing. smiling the jounin raced after the man. kakashi had to jump to avoid another trip wire, bolting to the right instead of triggering what he saw to be a large log that would have come crashing down from the tree tops to hit him. whistling a little he was glad he hadn’t tripped that one. it was not your standard trap that was for sure, iruka seemed to be a fast on his feet thinker and even faster when setting traps. as he searched for the chunin he had to avoid three more various traps before finally seeing movement. throwing a kunai kakashi wasn’t surprised when he heard it deflected. disappearing in a puff of smoke kakashi decided to surprise the chunin since he now had a good idea of where the man was hiding.  
catching his breath iruka could hear the various traps going off. he smiled, he knew that kakashi would most likely avoid a lot of them, but if even one of them caught the man it would delay him long enough for iruka to set more. the chunin was about to jump down from the tree he had been perched in when suddenly kakashi was right in front of him about to stab him with a very sharp kunai. bringing his own up to defend they pushed against one another, neither willing to back down. staring into each others eyes, iruka smirked and asked.  
"how'd you like my obstacle course"  
"very educational"  
came the haughty reply from the smirking man. iruka laughed before jumping away. smiling at the jounin iruka couldn’t help but give the man a heads up. pointing upwards, he watched in amusement as kakashi tilted his head back only to let out a startled yelp when a rather large log came crashing down on him. iruka was about to disappear into the forest again, when he suddenly found himself tied to the tree he'd been standing on, wire holding him in place. cursing he tried to cut the wire with his kunai but it wouldn’t work for some reason. he paused when his mind realized why. this was anbu grade wire. cursing iruka began looking around at what he could use to get out of this mess he could hear kakashi moving below him. sighing iruka took a breath to calm himself before he made himself disappear before kakashi could claim the victory to their little match. 

jumping up to where he had placed his own trap for the chunin kakashi was surprised to find it had gone off, but that there was no caught chunin in the anbu wire. nor was the wire sliced apart, there was no feasible way for the man to have gotten out if he hadn’t managed to find a way to break the wire. with it intact, kakashi was confused to how the chunin had escaped. frowning he looked around for the missing chunin before calling out.  
"i don’t know how you got out of that, but good job"  
iruka smiled from behind the tree. he wasn’t about to tell kakashi how he had managed to get away. instead he knelt down and prepared to cast another earth jutsu. making the hand signs iruka smiled when the earth rumbled beneath them causing the tree's to sway back and forth before beginning to fall into the crumbling earth. iruka quickly moved to safer ground and heard kakashi curse before doing the same. now on opposite sides of the crater kakashi was looking at the man in a new light.  
"that was impressive, lets see how you like mine?"  
kakashi quickly cast a fire jutsu and launched it at the chunin who with wide eyes avoided the explosion and frowned back at kakashi. laughing at the chunin's expense kakashi wasn’t surprised when a kunai was aimed at his head. he was however surprised when he found himself suddenly falling to the ground soon after. twisting around he was able to land on his feet on another branch. looking up saw that a second kunai that had obviously been thrown after the distracting head shot had hit the tree branch he had been perched on. whatever had been on the kunai had literally melted the tree. eyes widening kakashi turned to see what iruka was now doing only to find that the chunin was gone once more. cursing under his breath the jounin raced through the forest in search of the stealthy man. he was tempted to call his ninken, but figured that would be cheating a little.   
instead he took off after where he had last seen the chunin. it didn’t take him long to track the man down. kakashi got the distinct pleasure to avoid another tree trunk for his troubles, but managed to catch up to the man. as he did so he called out to the chunin.  
"what is with you and tree's?"  
iruka just laughed at him before beginning to do the signs for a water jutsu, kakashi's sharingan caught the movements and he quickly started doing his own technique to fight back against the water technique. the wave of water that iruka had pulled from the river below them crashed into the tree kakashi had been standing on, but it was the sudden lightning strike that caused iruka the most trouble. he had to avoid not only the water but the electricity that seemed to have a mind of its own and was following him. dashing around a tree the chunin heard the crash as the lightning ran into the tree trunk instead of hitting him. letting out a sigh iruka smiled, he was going to give kakashi a taste of his own medicine.  
watching the chunin flee from his lightning kakashi smiled. he had no doubt that the chunin could find a way to get away from it, especially after what he had witnessed of the chunin so far. he would have to let the hokage know that iruka was above the level of a chunin and had chosen to play it safe in the lower rank instead of revealing what he could really do. hearing the lightning connect with something he raced after it to find a seared tree. figures the man would use a tree, for one reason or another iruka seemed to be quite good at using his surroundings to his advantage. with a sudden oomph the jounin was knocked from his position from the tree he was standing on. looking around he couldn’t figure out what had hit his back to shove him from his previous perch. there was no trap laying sprung, no logs, nothing. letting the sharingan do its job kakashi searched for anything that could have been the culprit, but nothing stuck out. the jounin was suddenly hit again from behind and crashed into an opposing tree limb before righting himself. frowning he glanced around, just what was the chunin up too now? twisting around he couldn’t find anything, no reason for the attack that he’d just endured.  
iruka smiled from his hiding place, he knew that this would work against the jounin. iruka figured it was a little mean to use this against the man since he hadn’t fessed up to it to kakashi. another part of him figured the jounin had it coming, it was with that knowledge that the chunin smiled once more and went back to his game. waiting for the jounin to turn his back again, iruka allowed himself to disappear into the tree and reappear right behind kakashi only to punch the man unbalancing the man into falling. iruka quickly disappeared back into the tree so that he wouldn’t be caught.   
kakashi was thoroughly confused and getting a little peeved. his sharingan wasn’t picking up on anything around him, yet he kept getting hit. he was about to call out to the chunin when he was shoved once more from his balancing point and forced to re right himself on another tree branch. spinning around the jounin called out.  
"ok how the hell are you doing that?"  
kakashi heard laughter from around the tree's but couldn’t find the hiding chunin. placing his hands over his chest in a pouting fashion, he waited. then like some kind of magic trick he watched in awe as the chunin appeared out of the tree right a crossed from him. the man just walked out of it. eyes widening kakashi gasped a little at the confusing sight until his mind caught up and he stated.  
"kekkei genkai"


	16. new discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kakashi has inadvertently stumbled across a deep secret iruka has been hiding for many years. kakashi now has to figure out just how much more there is to learn about the chunin who is living with him. what other secrets could the man possibly hold?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everybody, hope you liked the last chapter. killer cliffhanger right? mwahahahahahaha. well here is another chapter to help with the nail biting im sure some of you were doing. I'm going to be posting another chapter right after this one as I dont think i'll have time later today to upload then. its my dad's birthday so were doing birthday-y things. 
> 
> that aside, I wanted to let you all know, cause im sure you can read the comments about the story just like i can. that yes, this story is already fully posted on another site. BUT WAIT!. its also not edited to the extreme that this one is, its formatting and grammar are atrocious if i do say so myself. plus i've added some things when i was editing. so if you really want to go and spoil all the surprises for yourself instead of sticking around here for the cleaner version with more goodies...its on AFF under the pen name emethyst. I really wouldn't recommend reading that version, not just because i want to keep you all here, but because that version is like two years old and has NO editing whatsoever. ultimately its up to you.

iruka just chuckled at him before confirming it by nodding. kakashi shook his head and asked.  
"how?"  
laughing some more the chunin couldn’t help but tease the nin.  
"well you see when a mommy and daddy shinobi-"  
kakashi snorted at the laughing chunin.  
"cute, what i meant was how did you keep it a secret, your parents were never listed as having one"  
iruka nodded his head before stating.  
"its a closely guarded secret. my parents could do it, but never showed it to anyone except for me. they weren’t on active duty remember? there was no one to see them do it and after they died i just kept it to myself and only used it when i really needed too"  
kakashi nodded, he hadn’t expected this. iruka walked towards him a smiled on his face.  
"sorry for tricking you"  
kakashi was a little surprised that the chunin felt the need to apologize for using his own natural ability against him. so he shrugged before saying  
"i was using the sharingan, though it didn’t do me much good once you started doing that"  
iruka nodded, he had known that the sharingan wouldn’t be able to pick up his subtle movements so long as he stayed behind kakashi. deciding to keep playing with the jounin iruka asked in a playful manner.  
"so how'd i do?"  
kakashi smiled at the nin, iruka was definitely more than what people assumed him to be.  
"i'd pass you"  
iruka laughed before shaking his head. jumping down from the tree's they rejoined mayonaka who had found a cozy place to nap well away from the sparring match. seeing her master again she thumped her tail on the ground before rising to run and greet iruka.  
"hey girl, did you miss me"  
scratching behind an ear he got a couple licks to the hand as he walked by her. kakashi was still thinking about what he'd learned about the shinobi walking in front of him. then he smiled as he thought about how much ibiki wasn’t able to get out of him during interrogation, ibiki was always one to stick to the facts and sometimes he just didn’t ask the right questions. shaking his head kakashi pushed the thought aside in order to tell iruka.  
"come on i'll treat you to lunch since you were able to confuse the hell out of me"  
iruka nodded while chuckling. as they walked kakashi couldn’t help but ask.  
"whats it like-your kekkai genkai? does it only work on trees?"  
iruka tilted his head back towards the man before responding to the obviously curious man.  
" i only ever saw my parents use it on tree’s and large rocks. it works easily enough on walls and stuff, but there’s some issues when things are a certain thickness so i’ve i've never tried it on anything else. i only ever saw my parents do it with tree's and i'd rather not get stuck somewhere that i cant get out of"  
kakashi conceded to that point. walking to the restaurant he was a little surprised to see how tired the man was. kakashi was about to ask if he was alright when they were bombarded by his team calling out to them. with a questioning glance to iruka and a nod from the chunin, they quickly joined them. once he was seated iruka seemed to get some of his lost color back,but kakashi wasn’t above asking him later.  
"so where have you two been"  
"we were training"  
iruka said as he sipped at some water, he needed to re-hydrate after all that exercise. it was raidou who asked.  
"you were training with kakashi?"  
iruka nodded his head.  
"yeah, but he wasn’t allowed to use genjitsu"  
the others just nodded like that would hold their teammate back from slaughtering the chunin. it was kakashi however who told them.  
"he won"  
eyes widening they glanced between the two before iruka butted in.  
"technically i cheated"  
kakashi shook his head, he wasn’t going to reveal the mans secret unless iruka spoke about it first, but he was going to make sure the man knew he had bested him.  
"you won fair and square, i wasn’t expecting that. if you were anyone else you could have killed me. everyone knows that in battle there are no rules."  
that really got the other jounin glancing between the two. iruka blushed but muttered a quiet thanks. coughing a little genma asked how iruka had managed to beat kakashi. kakashi shook his head which only annoyed his teammates, they wanted to know how a chunin had bested the copy ninja. seeing the disgruntled looks on the jounin around him, iruka finally spoke up.  
" i used a special technique i learned from my parents, his sharingan couldn’t track it so long as i stayed behind him."  
genma whistled before stating.  
"wow, that must be some technique"  
iruka shrugged, smiling around his teacup. turning to their teammate it was asuma who asked  
"you going soft in your old age?"  
the glare asuma got made them laugh. kakashi ignored them and continued talking with iruka.  
"you should consider trying for the jounin rank"  
iruka blushed but shook his head back and forth.  
"oh no, im fine right where i am"  
"why do you say that?"  
kurenai asked, they were all a little confused as to why the man was so afraid of ranking up. sighing a little iruka said.  
"the council doesn’t like me much, besides i have no use for ranking up. im doing a desk job now."  
the nins nodded their heads. but it was genma who bluntly stated.  
"screw the council, all you need is someone's backing to enter the exam and one of us could give you that, besides its ultimately up to the hokage not the council on who passes"  
iruka just opened his mouth, he couldn’t believe that genma would speak so forward and negatively towards the council. raidou just shook his head at his lover. leave it to genma to just say whatever was on his mind. luckily iruka was sparred from having to answer because the waitress came to take their orders. once she was gone however it didn’t seem like genma was quite ready to let it go.  
"besides i'd love to see someone shove it in the new chunin’s down a peg or two."  
iruka smiled at that, it was no secret that genin who had just become chunin were overly cocky and often tried for the jounin exam as soon as they convinced someone to back them for the exam. they hardly ever passed though. iruka shook his head at genma and said.  
"i have more experience than they do, that would hardly be fair"  
it was raidou who spoke up beside his lover  
"better they learn it now then out in the field. people don’t go easy on you just because your a rookie. enemy ninja go for the kill."  
iruka nodded, he knew that of course, but he would still feel like he was taking advantage of the younger applicants. kakashi finally spoke back up after watching genma and raidou explain everything to the chunin.  
"besides it'd be a waste of your abilities to stay at a desk job, you could even take a genin team if you wanted after a couple years"  
iruka smiled at that, he couldn’t bring himself to tell them the truth. he'd never be allowed a genin team, he might be allowed to try for jounin but that would be the highest he could ever go and even that was chancing things. when he said the council didn’t like him, he meant it. they saw him as orochimaru’s lackey and didn’t trust him, with the third gone there was really no one to tell them how much good he was doing for the village. tsunade liked him well enough, but she was on rocky ground with the council as well. iruka couldn’t count on her speaking up on his behalf if something went wrong. it was best to just stay under the radar as much as possible. smiling gently to the jounin iruka shook his head.  
"thank you, but really im fine"  
they let it drop as the teacher seemed to be tired of talking about it. the truth was iruka was tired in general. using his kekkai genkai that much really took a lot out of him. their food arrived and they ate together talking about what was going on around the village and how the work on the walls and buildings were going. genma of course exaggerated about how tedious it all was to which raidou rolled his eyes. asuma spoke about how the wall would be fixed soon and then they would be reassigned to do something else. iruka just listened to them talk about their days. he was rather enjoying their company which was strange for the man to admit. he was about to reach for his teacup when he winced, this caught the others attention and kurenai asked what was wrong.  
"headache, always happens after i use that technique."  
they looked to one another before asking. it was asuma who dared to ask.  
"are you sure your doing the technique correctly then, to have side effects that’s not normal."  
iruka smiled at the large man but shook his head.  
"nope, its normal. when i learned it i was warned about it. my teachers said if i just practice more it will stop, but i haven’t had much time to do that with teaching and all."  
they let the man drink his tea in peace. though they weren’t quite sure they believed him. paying their bill the group left the restaurant and walked with each other down the street, the team commented on mayonaka to which iruka pointed to kakashi and said it was his fault. they had laughed at that. coming to a split in the road the team said goodbye they needed to get back to work. waving them off kakashi and iruka walked leisurely down the street.  
"so you always get a headache from that?"  
iruka nodded his head.  
"sometimes worse, it depends on how much i use it. its really no different than any other kekkai genkai, you have to train it to get your body used to the strain of it."  
kakashi nodded, he would keep that information for himself. reaching the apartment, kakashi was surprised when iruka took his usual chair and pulled out the scroll ibiki had given him. frowning at the chunin he asked.  
"what are you doing?"  
looking up to kakashi iruka tilted his head to the side.  
"umm working?"  
before he could say anything the scroll was yanked out of his hands  
"hey"  
kakashi re rolled the scroll gently before stuffing it in his vest. to which iruka demanded he give it back.  
"nope"  
mouth agape iruka was at a loss, he didn’t know what the man was up too but he had work to do.  
"come on kakashi i need to get that done"  
the ninja just shook his head as he pulled out his book and began to read. glaring at the man iruka asked.  
"then what am i supposed to do now?"  
"mah take a nap, relax."  
scowling iruka commented.  
"i am relaxed"  
"you have a headache"  
"which is getting worse thanks to you"  
"you should take something for that, there's aspirin in the cupboard"  
iruka couldn’t believe this, kakashi refused to let him work. leaning back in his chair the chunin muttered under his breath.  
"im telling ibiki"  
"go for it"  
came the quick response. iruka continued to pout for a little bit, until the call of sleep lulled him into darkness. kakashi liked arguing with iruka, it was fun. looking over his book he smiled. the man was asleep in his chair already. he had no doubts that iruka would tattle to ibiki about him not allowing iruka to finish his work, but unlike iruka he wasn’t scared of ibiki so it wouldn’t matter. from the looks of things, iruka needed to take it easy after their sparring match and the use of his kekkai genkai. getting up from his chair, kakashi walked down the hallway to the library, there was something nagging at him. he knew he had a book about various techniques somewhere, going through the shelves he finally found the red book. smiling the jounin brought it back into the living room and started going through it, trying to find the information he was looking for. it took a little time, what with there being so much information in the book to begin with, but he finally located it.  
seishin tsuri- the spirit tree kekkai genkai belongs to a small clan in wave, mostly associated with their use of phasing through tree's. this technique can be applied to almost any object allowing its user to seemingly disappear through an object and avoid injury. it is a great stealth technique allowing its user to appear right behind its target regardless of where their target is standing.  
with repeated use, the user will gain full control of their ability to phase through objects. in time they may also be able to take other people with them in their phasing. they are only limited by the amount of chakra they expend doing so. chakra can be used in a variety of ways to support this technique, from a little or a lot depending on what type of object the user is phasing through to how fast they had to cast the technique. chakra exhaustion is a concern for its users.  
the only risks to the user is spending too much time in their shifted stage, staying too long in between solid states can result in injury or the inability to return to a solid state. with practice this risk can be reduced.

looking up to the chunin sleeping peacefully a crossed the room from him kakashi shut the book. it was a powerful technique, but like all kekkai genkai's it had its risks. it gave him a lot to think about. iruka could surely make jounin and with a little work might even be able to make anbu with this ability. it could be invaluable to escaping dangerous situations, yet the teacher seemed quite reluctant to advance in the ranks. there had to be a reason for that. letting his mind wander, the jounin made his way into the kitchen and prepared some tea. he would need to speak with the hokage about this, he wondered idly if she knew about iruka's ability. had the third known? had orochimaru known? sighing kakashi drank his tea, leaning against the counter. just when he thought he was starting to understand the chunin something else came up. iruka had a lot of secrets and the jounin was determined to figure them all out.

**********************************

iruka woke up a couple hours later, feeling better than he had before his forced relaxation. glancing a crossed the room he saw kakashi reading his porn like always.  
"can i have my scroll now?"  
kakashi turned the page in his book and thought about it a moment before asking.  
"why?"  
frustrated iruka rubbed his forehead, this man could irritate him like no other.  
"to work on it, its important kakashi."  
glancing up to the chunin kakashi suddenly came up with an idea. iruka did not like the smile on the jounin's face, he'd seen it before.  
"you can work on your scroll, if you answer some questions"  
sighing, iruka figured if answering to the jounin's curiosity would allow him to work on the scroll would be worth not having to face the wrath of ibiki.  
"alright fine."  
kakashi fished out the scroll and tossed it to the chunin, iruka caught it with ease and unrolled the document carefully. beginning to read he was a little surprised when kakashi started talking to him.  
"does the hokage know about your ability?"  
shaking his head iruka explained.  
"no, tsunade-sama is not aware. it’s not on any of my documentation and i’d like to keep it that way. i never showed it to anyone but my teammates and sensei...the third knew about it in the end, but we never talked much about it. there was never a reason to tell anyone else. its quite common for people to have family traits"  
kakashi tilted his head to the side as he listened to the man explain his history. when the chunin was done, kakashi said.  
"true, but did you ever consider it could put you in danger? orochimaru has shown interest in you joining him, he knows of your ability to infiltrate any place you choose, he could use your past together as a way to make you corporate."  
kakashi was surprised when iruka started laughing at his comment. shaking his head iruka replied.  
"sensei might want me to join him, but he knows he cant count on me being sentimental towards him. he burned that bridge a long time ago."  
frowning, kakashi left that for later.   
"alright, then there's the fact that you could be helping with wave on an active team"  
iruka looked up from the scroll for the first time since kakashi started questioning me and frowned.  
" who would decode the scrolls?"  
kakashi smirked at the chunin indulgently.   
" we have code breakers for that, sure having you do it is faster and more accurate, but its not impossible to have others do it."  
sighing, iruka put the scroll down.  
"what do you want kakashi?"  
kakashi stared at the chunin a moment before finally getting to his point.  
"i want to know why you wont consider it"  
closing his eyes for a moment iruka collected himself before allowing himself to vent a little towards the nosy jounin.  
"fine, you really want to know so badly i'll tell you why. the council doesn’t trust me due to my connection with sensei, their just waiting for me to do something to allow them to lock me up or execute me for treason. they would have already if it wasn’t for the third’s interference. with him gone i am not in a stable position with them. part of the thirds...agreement with them was that if i advanced in the ranks i wouldn’t be allowed to have a genin team, they don’t want the pupil of orochimaru teaching dark jutsu’s to kids. i would never be allowed higher than jounin and that’s if they even consented to allowing me to take the test in the first place. with the third gone, its very unlikely they would even entertain the idea of me doing something like that and with wave attacking i can guarantee im on their shit list right now regardless of what information ibiki brought to them. i've known for a while now that its just not an option for me so i've contented myself with what they will allow me to do. then theirs the fact that if they found out what i could do with my kekkai genkai, they would demand that i find a wife and have children for future generations, that they would undoubtedly try and control. i have my reasons for not advancing kakashi surely you can understand not wanting to be a pawn in someone elses game"  
kakashi was not a happy ninja, upon hearing the chunin’s reasons for holding himself back. the council were blaming iruka for orochimaru's mistakes, saying that the bright and cheerful chunin who loved kids was really just a psycho waiting to happen. it was true that people found to have kekkai genkai's were told to sire children for the village, but he couldn’t imagine why that would bother the chunin so much, he loved kids and he would make a great father, he could see that just in the way the chunin treated his students and naruto.   
"i would have thought that having your own kids would be something you would want someday, being so good with them and all."  
iruka smiled at the ninja. he might as well air it all out, kakashi was just going to continue to ask questions and he really didn’t feel like trying to hide it from the ninja.  
"i'd love to have kids, but its not an option because im gay remember."  
kakashi just starred at the chunin for a moment before stating.  
"that shouldn’t stop you from having kids"  
iruka just shook his head at the jounin, there really wasn’t much he could do about it anyways, so why think about it  
it was a bit startling to realize that he was actually starting to like living with the man. even if his questions were a little invasive. deciding that he had at least for the moment entertained the man enough the chunin asked.  
"so can i get back to my work now?"  
kakashi nodded, and watched as iruka settled in to read the scroll. he'd learned a lot about the chunin today and it only made him want to know more. resisting the urge to start asking more questions kakashi let the chunin do his paperwork and settled back to continue reading. they ate an early dinner and iruka managed to finish the scroll. the chunin fed mayonaka and called it an early night leaving kakashi alone in the living room. kakashi stayed up for a while just thinking on everything he had learned about the man. he couldn’t help but feel sorry for iruka, the man felt trapped in the position he was in and all because of orochimaru and the council. kakashi hated to see such a kind person be punished for something beyond their own control. at iruka had told ibiki, he had no choice in who his sensei had been. it was wrong of the village to punish him in the snake sanin’s place.

*******

the day started like any other for iruka and kakashi, iruka got up first showered and dressed before leaving for work, leaving kakashi with nothing to do until the chunin eventually came home. the jounin managed to clean up the apartment and go grocery shopping before returning to read for a little bit, finally too bored to even read. kakashi decided to pay a visit to the hokage. there were some things nagging at him and he wanted to know what the woman had to say about them.

********

tsunade was filling out another stack of paperwork when there was a knock on the window, not even bothering to look she asked.  
"what do you want brat"  
kakashi hopped in and came to stand before the hokage.  
"i was wondering some things and figured you of all people might know"  
"is this about iruka?"  
"yes"  
sighing the hokage glanced up from the papers to send the man an unimpressed look before returning to her papers.  
"what is it now"  
shuffling her papers she searched for what she was looking for while waiting for the copy ninja to state why he was there.  
"do you know why the council hates iruka?"  
this paused her movements. sighing she looked up to kakashi.  
"he's kept far too much hidden over the years and like everything, secrets get spilled. iruka would have had an easier time of things if he would just tell them what he knows about things instead of hiding it until it comes to light another way. it only makes iruka look worse in their eyes."  
kakashi watched her a moment before stating.  
“the third trusted him.”  
tsunade smiled back at the jounin.  
“i am aware of that”  
kakashi nodded his head.  
“do you?”  
sighing tsunade laid her head into her palm before saying.  
“im not sure what to think of him to be honest. he has an amazing track record at the academy. he’s wonderful with the children, his past with naruto should have gotten him commendations.”  
kakashi snorted at the woman who smirked back at him. they all knew how much of a handful the blonde was.  
“still, his time with orochimaru is sketchy...there isn’t much recorded and i have a feeling that was mostly on the thirds hands. i have no doubt he was trying to shield iruka from some of the backlash from orochimaru’s betrayal of the village. had he recorded some of the things we’ve learned about the man...the council wouldn’t have been so lenient with him. as it stands, they aren’t happy to learn about some of the things ibiki and your team discovered. his new found ability to read the missives we’ve collected from wave is another sore point. knowledge is power in a shinobi village kakashi and right now iruka is hiding knowledge that could impact this village for the better or worse of its inhabitants.”  
kakashi nodded. he vaguely wondered if he should tell the hokage about iruka's kekkai genkai, instead the jounin tried to move the conversation around that.  
"did you know that he is more than capable of being a jounin"  
the hokage raised an eyebrow, this was interesting.  
"i had my suspicions, he was trained by orochimaru after all, i doubted that he didn’t know enough to make the higher ranks. the third left very little on iruka’s chunin exam and the mission reports are vague at best. as i said previously the third was trying to shield iruka, but leaving out that important information is only making things worse now. there was no way of knowing how skilled he was and his disinclination to take the test lead me to believe he was fine where he was."  
kakashi nodded his head before supplying.  
"he could make higher ranks if given the opportunity"  
puzzled the hokage asked.  
"why wouldn’t he be given the opportunity? all he needs is someone to back his testing."  
kakashi shook his head before informing her.  
"he said that the council would never allow it, implied that he had been informed that taking the test wasn’t an option for him."  
frowning, tsunade muttered about nosy old geezers making kakashi smile. collecting herself the hokage then turned to the jounin and asked.  
"does he want to reach a higher rank?"  
kakashi shrugged his shoulders.  
"hes scared of the council, i think they might have threatened him with something"  
pulling a face that showed her irritation to the remark, she asked.  
"like what?"  
"his future here"  
the hokage leaned back in her chair, reaching for her cup of sake she thought about it. it was true that the council had a lot of sway in the village. they could make demands of the hokage or force her hand when certain evidence was brought forth to them. with iruka’s past there was no doubt that one slip up could have the old geezers barking at her front door to see iruka punished. sighing tsunade looked over to the silent form of kakashi and asked.  
"im guessing you tested him?"  
"we trained together"  
nodding she wanted to know how it went.  
"how'd he do?"  
"he won"  
she spit out her sake, causing kakashi to take a step back to avoid the spray of alcohol.  
"he what?"  
she choked out. nodding his head kakashi restated.  
"he won"  
"how"  
tilting his head to the side kakashi replied.  
"by fighting"  
the woman snorted at him before asking him to clarify.  
"he has many secrets that im not sure he would appreciate me spilling and given our conversation...it might be wise not too speak of such things."  
that intrigued the woman.  
"im guessing these secrets are relevant to our current conversation"  
kakashi nodded his head. tsunade thought a moment before stating in a questionable tone.  
"alright, so you two trained together and somehow he managed to win against you. are these abilities something that could be used against the village"  
well damn, kakashi hadn’t wanted to imply that iruka was going to hurt anyone. he knew the chunin would rather kill himself than harm anyone of the village. tsunade’s hardening glare told the jounin he had taken too long to answer her question. sighing the jounin admitted.   
"if he chose to fight yes, but he didn’t win because he showed force, he thought about every move he made and carefully planned it out. after he had won iruka didn’t gloat, he seemed almost ashamed. he doesn’t trust in his own abilities"  
she considered what kakashi had to say, she knew the school teacher pretty well by now, having him work the missions desk and deliver files to her personally from time to time had allowed her to see his caring nature. but she still had a village to protect. shaking her head she steeled herself once more back into the role of a the hokage of the village.  
"i need to know how he won"  
kakashi looked out the window, tsunade frowned wondering if kakashi was actually going to refuse her. a moment later the copy ninja said morosely while still looking away from her.  
"he has a kekkai genkai"  
well that was news to her.  
"what kind"  
kakashi twisted back around to face her and reported almost robotically.  
"he can phase through objects, mostly uses it with tree's but i found an entry in a book i have and read up on it. if he practiced he would be able to go through just about anything and take people with him."  
that was a powerful ability indeed. rubbing her temples she didn’t know what to do with the school teacher. he was a kind man, but she had seen kind people swayed with the promise of their greatest desires to turn on comrades.  
"alright, i need you to bring him to see me, i need to speak with him personally about this."  
kakashi couldn’t hide the wince, he knew that wasn’t going to go over well with the chunin and he was going to feel the chunin's wrath when iruka realized that kakashi had not only told the hokage about his secret, but told her about what all the chunin had said in confidence to him. the hokage snorted at the wincing jounin in front of her.  
"don’t make that kind of face, you'll get stuck like that. its for his safety and the villages that i need to speak with him."  
kakashi nodded, he would of course do as she asked. she was his hokage. with a wave of her hand she waved him off and he left through the same window he came in by.


	17. humiliation and new orders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kakashi's talk with the hokage has ramifications for iruka. the poor chunin is put through the wringer as he is issued new orders after having to come clean to the hokage herself. if that wasn't enough the new orders...might just kill him. either way iruka is pretty sure he wants to kill kakashi now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day, right after the first because yeah, i do have a life sometimes. go figure. hope you guys enjoy the chapters, keep writing all those lovely comments. its the highlight of my day when i get to read what you guys think about the story. 
> 
> things are really going to start heating up after this chapter, im sure you'll see why once you've read it.

iruka was tired, his eyes hurt from all the scrolls he'd been reading and he was hungry. reaching down to pat mayonaka on the head he said quite happily.  
"were done for the day, lets go home ne"  
the dog let out a playful yip and followed him out the door of his office. it was when he left the building that he froze, kakashi was leaning against a tree just outside the building. the man kicked off of the tree and approached the chunin.   
"yo"  
smiling at the man's typical greeting iruka asked.  
"did you come to walk us home?"  
kakashi shook his head.  
"nope afraid not, we have orders to go see the hokage"  
iruka raised an eyebrow at that, but followed the silver haired ninja.  
"do you know why?"  
"yes"  
when the man didn’t say anything else on that front, iruka prompted the man.  
"are you going to tell me?"  
"wasn’t planning on it"  
iruka snorted and caught up with the ninja to walk beside him.  
"is it bad?"  
"depends on your definition"  
came the almost pained voice of the shinobi walking beside him. sighing iruka didn’t bother asking anymore questions. as they headed their way towards the hokage tower kakashi suddenly paused and turned to look down at mayonaka, iruka followed his gaze wondering if the ninken was doing something worth watching. she wasn’t. looking up to kakashi, iruka was surprised when the ninja said.  
“mayonaka go wait for us at home.”  
the dog barked at the ninja before glancing towards iruka. kakashi gave the chunin a look that had the chunin nodding his head and reinforcing the man’s previous order.  
“go on girl, we’ll be along soon enough.”  
the ninken barked once more before slowly trotting off towards the apartment. iruka glanced back to kakashi, but the jounin shook his head and started walking back towards their destination. sighing iruka followed after the man, silently wondering why they had just dismissed his dog. once they entered the hokage tower and were signed in, they made their way up the stairs to the office of the hokage. an anbu stood outside the door and regarded them coolly before stating.  
"she only wishes to speak to the chunin"  
that caught both of them off guard. iruka looked back to kakashi and the man could only shrug his shoulders.  
"i'll be out here i guess"  
nodding his head iruka entered the hokage's office, he couldn’t help but feel like a child being caught doing something they weren’t supposed too. he wondered if he was still supposed to feel that way when he was an adult and hadn’t managed to paint the monument stones green. iruka greeted her like always and she just smiled at him.  
"how is your new position working out?"  
oh was that all it was about? he could handle this.  
"its fine, i get to have mayonaka with me during the day so i have company while reading all those scrolls. the only thing that would make it better was if i didn’t have to see ibiki"  
she laughed a little at that, she knew that the ninja would most likely have a hard time being around the same person who had instigated his torture. nodding her head the hokage collected herself enough to inform iruka of why he was here.  
"i have something very important to talk to you about"  
"alright"  
iruka nodded his head, waiting patiently for her to tell him what was needed of him.  
"but first i want to clarify something"  
iruka nodded his head, it wasn’t often that she was so calm. he was beginning to think something was really really wrong.  
"its not kakashi's fault-i ordered him to come clean"  
yeah he didn’t like the sound of that.  
"now, why don’t you tell me why you didn’t reveal you had a kekkai genkai"  
yep he was gonna kill kakashi.   
"it never came up?"  
by the look on her face iruka knew that she wasn’t buying it, sighing he shrugged.  
"i never thought i should, my parents were worried someone would try to use me as a weapon and it just kinda stuck with me and with everything that happened with sensei, i knew better than to tell people about it...if they knew that i had one more thing up my sleeve, i didn’t think it would end well."  
she nodded her head at that, she could understand his reservations at telling the truth, but she knew she had to drive home a very important lesson.  
"you will not under any circumstances hide any more information from this village, do i make myself clear?"  
he bowed his head but nodded. trying his best not to wince as she shouted at him. a moment later in a far too calm and placating voice the hokage asked sweetly.  
"is there anything else that you need to tell me"  
iruka couldn’t help it, it was the first thing that came to mind.  
"im gay"

********

it had been way too quiet in there, kakashi had half expected for the chunin to shout again or to just come running out of the room. so when nothing happened he silently began to worry. then both him and the anbu jumped when they heard tsunade laughing hysterically.  
"is that a good thing?"  
the anbu twisted his head around and glanced at kakashi before informing him.  
"the last time she laughed like that she was sentencing someone to take care of the livestock for a year and a half for saying she didn’t look young"  
"ah, well damn"  
the anbu nodded his head before turning back around to his post.

************

iruka waited for her to stop laughing to continue.  
"i still have a contract with the snakes, which im sure you already knew-i know a lot of forbidden jutsu's, but i don’t use them. i have the skills to assassinate just about anyone in this village or any village for that matter, but i'd never-"  
the hokage held up her hand to silence him as she said.  
"alright that’s enough, you understand my position. you are a liability to this village, with your training and your skill set you are a lethal man. whats worse is that you were trying to hide all of this from not only the village but your hokage and the council. this puts me in an odd bind im afraid...the best thing i can think of at the moment is to have you continue to report to ibiki for your current assignment and continue to live with hatake until i deem otherwise. that arrangement seems to be working out well enough and i would suggest you start training in your time off from work."  
puzzled iruka asked why, she smiled.  
"because your going to take the jounin exam and your going to pass it, if i even suspect you of trying to throw the challenges we give you during that test, you will wish you to get to spend time with ibiki do i make myself clear?"  
iruka nodded his head, he knew she had a temper, but man was she scary when she wanted to be.  
"now why don’t you tell me all about what you've learned over the years and everything in between. don’t leave anything out. i want to know when, where, why and who. anything the third knew i want to know more, do i make myself clear."  
iruka knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter so he begrudgingly nodded his head before he started at the beginning. he didn’t stop until the tears had dried and started again. when he was through telling her everything he waited for her to say anything, but it was silent for quite a long while before she suggested that they move on and asked.  
"good, now do you have any questions about anything we've talked about?"  
he had so many questions, but he supposed the most important one was.  
"why?"  
his voice was raspy from all the talking and crying he’d done in front of the imposing woman. she smiled gently to him before saying.  
"because we need all the able bodied shinobi we can get, with your skills you will be an important asset to my shinobi. you've lounged around the village long enough, hiding from shadow’s that don’t exist. no more hiding what your capable of iruka. your village needs your help to thrive once more. its long since past the time for you to prove yourself and get from under his shadow."  
iruka sighed before honestly saying.  
"i thought you were just doing it to torture me"  
she smirked at the chunin who was staring at her like she had just grounded an impudent child.  
"that too, but the most important part iruka is that this village needs you. i know you would protect your students from any harm, you did during the wave attack. just think of this as protecting them from a threat before they can reach the konoha"  
iruka nodded his head, he really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. seeing the automatic responses she was used to the man when he was shutting down she told him.  
"this isn’t a punishment iruka. this is a chance for you to become a better shinobi for the sake of your village"  
iruka didn’t comment on the opportunity she was giving him, instead choosing to ask.  
"and the council?"  
"i will take care of the council-"  
iruka couldn’t help but interrupt her.  
"they'll want me to have children for the sake of passing it on...my ability."  
she nodded her head, she knew there was a high probability of them requesting that.  
"i wont do it"  
and there he went making her life harder. sighing she tried to reason with the man.  
"iruka-"  
the chunin shook his head resolutely.   
"no i wont just have children because they don’t want to lose my abilities. i'll take the jounin exam, i'll do everything else, but i refuse to do that."  
she sighed, she knew he was going to continue to fight her on the subject so she simply replied.  
"we'll talk about it at a later date, your free to go-oh and here is your new schedule with ibiki, it should give you plenty of time to train for your upcoming exam."  
taking the paper from the hokage iruka bowed like he was expected too and stormed out of the office, he couldn’t hold back slamming the door on the way out though. she winced at the loud slam. rubbing her forehead she wondered just how long she could hold off the council from demanding iruka to take a wife and sire some children. a small smirk came to her face as she remembered the chunin’s embarrassed declaration of his sexual orientation. chuckling she wondered if an awkward encounter like that would be enough to sway the council into leaving the man alone.

********

kakashi and the anbu both jumped when the door swung open rather unexpectedly to show a very not happy chunin, they winced when he slammed the door.  
" easy on the door"  
the glare the anbu received shut the man up. iruka stormed past kakashi and started down the stairs. kakashi smiled at the anbu before turning to chase after the ninja. iruka stayed silent until they were alone on the road back to the apartment. when kakashi tried to open his mouth to ask what had happened, iruka cut him off.  
"your an ass"  
kakashi nodded his head before reminding the chunin.  
"alright-you realize i couldn’t just not tell her right?"  
"your still an ass"  
kakashi nodded again before saying.  
"fair enough"  
it was silent for a few steps before kakashi asked.  
"what did she want?"  
iruka stopped in the middle of the street and turned to glare at him, kakashi didn’t know what to do or say and was a little shocked when the chunin suddenly punched him in the face before storming off down the road. rubbing his cheek the jounin followed after the man. kakashi kept his distance until they got to the apartment door. he half expected iruka to slam the door in his face, but the chunin didn’t, instead he went straight to his room his dog trailing behind him. once mayonaka was in his room iruka shut the door, effectively shutting kakashi out.  
kakashi sighed, well that could have gone better, but then again it could have gone worse too. now knowing that the ninja could literally stab him in the back anytime he wished to kakashi was kinda glad to not have something sharp sticking out of him. the jounin took his seat and waited, he was sure that iruka would come around eventually. or try to kill him in his sleep. one or the other, either way they’d get the opportunity to talk about what happened.

*******

iruka lay face down on his bed, mayonaka was laying beside him. he couldn’t believe his luck. he just couldn’t seem to catch a break. sighing iruka turned his head to the side and looked into the dark eyes of his ninken. he smiled at her and reached out to stroke her head.   
"i swear i'd kill that man if i knew i could get away with it."  
the dog just tilted its head to the side like she was listening to everything he said. sitting up iruka took in the space of his room. it was a smaller room, but it would be able to accommodate some changes he wanted to make. he was obviously going to be staying for the near future so he might as well redecorate and with how angry he was with kakashi at the moment he didn’t think the man would dare to argue with him. iruka was going to have to go buy some new supplies for training, then he was going to have to ask kakashi to actually train with him, as he had no one else he would even consider doing that with. that was also something he was not looking forward too. looking back to his ninken he spoke to her again.  
"i bet you think all of this is highly amusing don’t you girl"  
the dog scooted forward and put her head in his lap. smiling to her he did as was silently asked of him and scratched behind her ear. sighing iruka decided he had hid in his room long enough, he might as well get this all over with. if he was going to be angry at kakashi the least he could do is make the man aware of how much he screwed up. smirking, iruka slid off of his bed and slowly made his way towards the living room.

*******

kakashi was startled when he heard the voice of the chunin behind him.  
"your getting your wish"  
he watched carefully as the chunin went to his chair, the black dog following close on his heels. once they were both seated the jounin chose to question the man’s statement.  
"my wish?"  
"im to take the jounin exam soon"  
ah, so that’s what had happened inside the hokage’s office. giving the man a lax smile kakashi said.  
"that wont be too bad ne"  
the scowl he got told him to shut up unless he wanted another bruised cheek. iruka took that silence as the go ahead to state.  
"she's also informing the council of everything"  
ok that wasn’t a good thing. kakashi was about to apologize when iruka continued.  
"im to work three days a week and train when im not working. im also not allowed to hold back, im to use any and all of the skills i have to accomplish the goal of reaching a higher rank."  
well he didn’t think the chunin would have a problem passing at least, but he knew that wasn’t the issue.  
"im sorry"  
iruka ignored the apology in favor of informing the jounin.  
"im also not allowed to keep anything a secret anymore, i had to tell her everything. and i do mean everything."  
kakashi winced, he really had screwed up. iruka stood up and prepared to go back to bed, it was still early,but he was tired. having informed the jounin of what he had caused, iruka felt it was best to retire for the night before he did something stupid. as he went to leave he had to ask.  
"are you happy now?"  
when kakashi didn’t respond, iruka continued down the hallway. kakashi put his face in his hands. things had been going so well between them and now, kami had he screwed up, he should have just kept his mouth shut. if he'd never gone to talk to the hokage none of this would have happened.

********

the following morning kakashi was surprised to find that iruka was long gone by the time he woke up. sighing he decided it would be a good idea to go and see his teammates. now that the secrets were out, they might as well know what was going on, maybe he could get them to help prepare iruka for the jounin exam.

********

iruka worked straight through lunch, munching as he transcribed things. occasionally throwing a scrap to his dog. he'd made a lot of progress on the scrolls before him and hoped that he could continue at this pace so he could turn the translated version in by tonight. he was also hoping that if he was able to get off work a little early that he might be able to beat kakashi to the apartment and not have to speak with the ninja. he didn’t know what kakashi had planned for the day but he knew the ninja didn’t stay cooped up inside all day.

*********

he'd called them to meet him at the secret training grounds, once they got there kakashi instructed them to sit so he could tell them everything that had been going on. when he was through updating them, he got to watch their shocked faces. it was amusing to watch his team be shocked at what he had told them and had it been something lighter than the fate of the chunin who was living with him, he might have laughed. instead he waited for them to sort themselves out. it took a moment for them to collect themselves enough to start asking questions.  
"so he can just disappear into tree's and stuff?"  
looking to genma kakashi nodded.  
"totally disappears, my sharingan couldn’t even see him ,until he walked out of the tree"  
genma whistled around the senbon in his mouth and reclined against raidou.  
"and the hokage's making him take the test? how does iruka feel about that, he didn’t seem like he was all that interested in it."  
kakashi smiled at kurenai, she was such a kind woman.  
"he's not happy that’s for sure, punched me in the face when i started asking too many questions. i have no doubts that with a little practice he could easily pull off whatever they decide to test him with, he's just a little rusty is all."  
they nodded, before letting kakashi continue.  
"one of the reasons i asked you all here was to find out if you'd help me get him ready."  
"of course"  
kurenai responded, she didn’t even need to look around to know her teammates were in agreement. kakashi sighed, he was grateful to his team for understanding.  
"does he know your asking us to help?"  
raidou questioned him, kakashi smirked before shaking his head.  
"no, he left for work before i was even up. snuck out. im sure hes going to try and avoid me, but im sure i can get him to at least shout at me today. small progress is key ya know."  
that made the other ninja laugh, leave it to kakashi to find a way to irritate the young man into responding to him. finally kakashi said in an amused tone.  
"apparently he was able to make the hokage laugh quite hard when he very bluntly told her that he was gay when she asked for more information. for some reason she hadn’t been expecting that."  
genma started laughing, raidou had a smile plastered on his face while kurenai was faintly blushing. asuma was just shaking his head, the smoke in his mouth tilting at the movement.  
"he just said it like that?"  
"apparently, me and her guard could hear her all the way from outside"  
they all laughed at that. as embarrassing as it must have been for the chunin to admit such a personal thing. they had to give him credit for just blurting it out at the hokage. genma was the one to state in an amused tone.  
"bet she'll be more careful in how she asks him questions from now on"  
kakashi nodded his head. looking at the sun he figured he should get back to the apartment to make sure that the chunin didn’t get a chance to avoid him. his teammates wished him luck.  
walking down the road, kakashi watched the different traders and merchants walk about the village offering their goods. maybe he could convince iruka to leave the apartment for a walk tonight. it wasn’t cold and the movement might help the nin to work off some of his frustration. nodding his head with a plan in hand the jounin headed back to his apartment. opening the door he was surprised to see the other pair of sandals already there. iruka must have finished early today, smiling kakashi looked down the hallway and saw the door wide open. so iruka wasn’t in his room. just about to step into the living room he heard a startled yell followed by cursing. he quickened his pace into the kitchen to see iruka blowing on his hand. a pot boiling over on the stove. shaking his head kakashi reached around the jumping chunin and lowered the temperature on the stove before grabbing the mans hand and shoving it under the sink. the cold water made the chunin wince, but iruka also sighed as the burning sensation stopped. taking his hand back, iruka quietly thanked kakashi.  
"no problem. were you trying to burn water?"  
iruka sent him a glare before retorting.  
"no, i was trying to make some ramen"  
smirking at the man, kakashi watched as the man put the noodles into the boiling water. standing in the kitchen they didn’t have much of a choice but to look at one another. finally clearing his throat kakashi spoke.  
"i talked with my team, they've agreed to help get you ready for your exam"  
iruka blinked at him in shock before he nodded and stammered out.  
"oh, that was nice of them"  
kakashi smiled, iruka didn’t seem to be as mad today and he wasn’t going to take it for granted.  
"how was work?"  
stirring the noodles iruka shrugged to kakashi making the ninja frown. he had thought they were getting somewhere, but he quickly smiled when iruka continued with.  
"the scroll im deciphering now is i swear a grocery list"  
kakashi laughed  
"ah so their going to invade to take our groceries"  
"pft that’s what the scroll looks like, maybe someone spilled something on it and changed the kanji but all it is talking about is fruit"  
kakashi waited for the man to be finished preparing his ramen before joining him in the living room. mayonaka was once more laying beside iruka’s chair and with both of them sitting in their favorite places kakashi decided to tempt fate.  
"so what put you in such a good mood? earlier you were lets say- not"  
smiling iruka responded as if it was the most casual thing in the world.  
"well i thought about it and although i don’t have a choice in the matter of taking that test, thanks for that by the way. at the very least i can make your life a living hell for the next little bit while doing what is needed to take it. so really you only have yourself to blame here on out."  
the smile on the chunin’s face made kakashi frown.  
"gee thanks"  
iruka’s beaming smile was accompanied by his smart remark of.  
"you earned it"  
kakashi frowned at the man, so iruka was planning on doing something to punish him. tilting his head to the side, the jounin asked.  
"do i get a heads up when your wrath is coming?"  
"nope"  
sighing kakashi took it in stride at least the man was talking to him. besides he was pretty sure he could deal with whatever the nin had up his sleeve. the jounin had no idea just how wrong he was. iruka finished his ramen before commenting.  
"i have tomorrow off so im guessing were going to go train...if your not busy that is"  
kakashi nodded his head.  
“not busy in the least.”  
he was planning on giving the chunin a full workout just to see what limits the man had. when he told the chunin this iruka sighed.  
"great, do i still get the no genjitsu rule?"  
"no"  
kakashi smiled. iruka sighed before muttering.  
"damn"  
smiling at the man a crossed from him kakashi advised that iruka get a full nights sleep cause they were going to be training all day. the man sighed before telling kakashi goodnight and excusing himself for the evening. 

*******

iruka woke up to a knock on his door, groaning he looked to the clock, it was early alright.  
"im up"  
iruka groaned. he heard a snort before the jounin called through the door.  
"get dressed we leave in ten"  
sighing he turned his head over to look at mayonaka.  
"this is going to be worse than working for ibiki i just know it"  
the dog just wagged her tail at him. rolling out of bed he got himself ready and found kakashi in the living room. he managed to catch the object thrown at him, looking down he saw a brand new weapons pouch. looking up to kakashi he simply stated.  
"im gonna need this aren’t i"  
kakashi nodded.  
"every last one"  
nodding his head iruka turned to mayonaka and told her to be good while they were gone, it was really the first time he was leaving her behind for longer than an hour but he didn’t want to chance a stray weapon hurting the dog. she whined a little bit before laying down obediently. turning to kakashi the chunin told the man he was ready.

they reappeared in what he assumed to be a training grounds, but it was a lot bigger than the typical ones he was used to, iruka couldn’t even see the barrier flags. looking to kakashi he was about to ask him how big the place was when he suddenly had to dodge a kunai aimed at his head. giving a yelp he jumped out of the way. before shouting out.  
"a little warning next time would be nice"  
kakashi just stalked towards him, iruka didn’t need to be told twice, he turned and ran.   
they'd been trading blows for over four hours a mix between hide and seek and full out punching and kicking when they got too close to one another. it was a steady rhythm that kept iruka on his toes. he had yet to use any of the many jutsu's he'd learned from his sensei, and although he was holding back, he was holding his own against the jounin who was stalking him through the woods. leaning against a tree he tried to catch his breath as he heard one of his many traps go off.  
kakashi wasn’t fooled by the traps, he set a couple off deliberately with clones to confuse the chunin to his exact location. kakashi had a good idea of where the chunin was hiding and although he was glad the chunin was playing to his strengths he was getting a little mad that the chunin seemed to be holding back, unwilling to show any real intent to hurt him. kakashi didn’t expect the man to go on an all out killing rage against him, but some intent would be nice. a good way to show him just what the chunin was capable of. setting his own trap, he prepared to herd the chunin towards it and win the round. hopefully he could teach the chunin a lesson at the same time.

iruka heard some limbs snap and wasn’t fooled by it, he knew that kakashi was most likely in the tree's not on the ground. so he hunkered down and waited for the man to show himself. sure enough a couple senbon came flying his way only to embed themselves in the tree trunk where he had previously been. the chase was on. iruka made sure that he threw some of his own weapons to keep the jounin at bay, but as he turned to throw some more, iruka suddenly found himself being thrown to the ground far below. twisting and turning did nothing to help him escape the rope binding him. the chunin crashed through the tree branches wincing at each blow as the branches gave way from his weight. he finally crashed to the ground with a loud thud, knocking the wind out of the chunin who lay gasping.  
feet landed a few inches from his face. iruka couldn’t turn his head to look but he knew who they belonged too. he felt the cold steel of a kunai being put to his throat.  
"your dead"  
sighing iruka yielded to the jounin. feeling the knife taken away he waited for kakashi to let him out of the rope, but the man just sat down in front of him. blinking at the jounin, the sweaty chunin asked.  
"um kakashi aren’t you going to let me out?"  
kakashi smirked.  
"wasn’t planning on it, figure out how to escape, sometimes you'll have limited tools to have to escape from an enemy so be inventive."  
iruka tried moving his arms around, but they just couldn’t budge, moving his ankles he found he could wiggle them a bit but not enough to help do anything. with a frustrated sigh iruka gave up wiggling as he was sure he was only making a fool of himself in front of the man watching him. staring back at kakashi, iruka asked.  
"is there actually a way out of this or is this some kind of test with no answer?"  
kakashi just smiled to him, grinding his teeth iruka went back to feeling his surroundings. there had to be an end to the rope somewhere and if he found that he could untie it. searching the bindings around him resulted in nothing. he couldn’t find the blasted end to the rope. that’s when he noticed the trails of wire leading up into the tree's. eyes widening he turned to kakashi and shouted.  
"you anchored it all the way up there!"  
kakashi tilted his head back to look up into the canopy of the tree.  
"mah so i did, would you look at that"  
balking at the audacity of the man, iruka demanded to know.  
"how the hell am i supposed to get back up there"  
kakashi looked back down at the chunin and smiled before offering up some great advice to the chunin.  
"carefully would be my suggestion"  
gaping at the jounin iruka couldn’t believe the man in front of him. but before he could shout at the jounin, kakashi was standing and walking away.  
"i'll be back in a little bit to check on you"  
"you cant leave me here"  
the chunin cried in frustration. kakashi waved a hand at him while stating.  
"you'll be fine, there's no animals around to eat you"  
the chunin couldn’t believe it, he watched as the silver haired nin just walked away, leaving him tied up with no chance of escape unless he could get to the ends which were somewhere in the tree branches above him.


	18. tangoing with anbu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka and kakashi finish their first sparring session, kakashi also test's iruka's ability to get around genjitsu and iruka gets the opportunity to train with kakashi's team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day. sorry for the late posts. friday's i have meetings until two pm and traffic plus other responsibilities...yeah. life. anyways. hope you enjoy today's chapters. the second chapter for the day will be up in a few minutes as well so get your fix for the day. 
> 
> I intend to post two chapters a day until the story is complete. barring any unforeseen complications in my life that is. please keep writing your encouraging responses. it really makes my day to be able to read your reactions to the chapters. we've officially hit 1000 hits to the story. amazing! so thank you for all of you reading and stay tuned, we still have quite a few chapters to go and about another 100,000 words to go as well.

kakashi smiled to himself. he knew his little trap had frustrated the chunin, but it was a good exercise to see how his mind could work around hard problem solving. he was about to congratulate himself when a huge explosion pushed him forward. looking back kakashi could see smoke coming from where he had just left iruka. running back the jounin didn’t know what he'd find, but he prayed the chunin was in one piece when he did find him.

*********

iruka had managed to get free, but at a cost. coughing he tried not to move his burned arm. it hurt quite a bit, but it was worth it to escape kakashi's stupid trap. he heard the ninja come running back and put on a rather proud smile on his face.  
kakashi couldn’t believe what he saw. iruka was just standing there among utter chaos, the tree had been blown to bits and the teacher just stood there. his left arm burned and bleeding. and a smile on his face. the jounin cried out in alarm at the sight of the wreckage around the chunin.  
"what did you do?"  
"i escaped"  
came the self satisfied remark from the burned man. coming over to the chunin kakashi took in the appearance of the mans burned arm, he would need a med nin to take a look at it. shaking his head kakashi didn’t bother to try and touch it, he knew that iruka would just instinctively pull away and with how it looked he didn’t blame him. scowling at the smiling chunin kakashi growled out.  
"you nearly blew yourself up"  
iruka shook his head.  
"i had it contained, i knew exactly where and how far it would detonate. it was a jutsu not a tag"  
that was news to kakashi, he had automatically assumed that the man had managed to reach his weapons pouch or had the tags stored somewhere on his body.  
"a jutsu?"  
"yep"  
sighing he motioned for iruka to start walking.  
"come on, we better get that looked at"  
iruka did so with a smile on his face, kakashi couldn’t help but say.  
"you were supposed to escape quietly and without hurting yourself"  
iruka shook his head at the jounin before reminding him.  
"you said be inventive, so i was inventive and i achieved the goal of the test, i escaped. you said nothing about stealth."  
kakashi had to give the teacher that, but he still would have preferred that the man didn’t injure himself just to prove a point. he escorted the chunin to the hospital where a med nin took one look at the man and tsked at them before leading them to an exam room. it wasn’t much longer and an older man came in. he raised an eyebrow at the pair before examining iruka's arm.  
"pretty nasty burn you got there. how'd you get it?"  
"training"  
the man just nodded his head, he was used to that being the answer after all they were in a ninja village. as gently as he could he cleaned the wound and started the healing process with his own chakra. once he had helped the process along he wrapped iruka’s arm and told him to change the dressing when needed and to be more careful with his training. iruka ignored the scowling jounin looming in the corner of the exam room, instead choosing to nod and shake his head when appropriate to the doctors questions. once he was cleared to leave he smiled to kakashi and headed outside.  
leaving the hospital iruka still had a smile plastered on his face, kakashi just shook his head. he couldn’t believe the chunin. he would have to warn his teammates about the fact that iruka had no qualms about hurting himself to escape a situation. walking down the street iruka suddenly tensed a little, just enough to make it noticeable to kakashi. at first kakashi glanced to iruka to see what was wrong before looking to where the man was staring he sighed. it was those two again.  
kotetsu and izumo's eyes widened when they saw kakashi and iruka together again. and then headed their way when they saw the mans arm in a full length bandage.  
"what happened?"  
smiling at them iruka answered truthfully  
"i was training with kakashi and he tasked me with escaping a wire trap, so i exploded it"  
the two men just gaped at him like he was crazy.  
"you blew yourself up?"  
iruka frowned before shaking his head.  
"no i blew the tree up, my arm just got caught in the blast a little"  
the two chunin glanced to one another before looking to kakashi.  
"you just let him blow himself up?"  
their tone of voice was easy to decipher, they blamed him for the mans injury. scowling kakashi informed them.  
"i wasn’t actually there when it happened"  
the pair frowned before kotetsu asked.  
"what do you mean you weren’t there? you were training together right?"  
sighing, kakashi explained.  
"i kinda left him tied to the tree, i knew it would take a while for him to get loose so i just figured i'd go for a walk and come back...then i saw the explosion"  
they looked back to a smug looking chunin and couldn’t believe what they were hearing. they had always suspected that iruka was a little off, the man always seemed to avoid people whenever possible and just focused on his work more than everything. it was kotetsu who muttered.  
"ano you should be more careful next time"  
iruka nodded his head at the request, but otherwise didn’t comment. the pair wished them well and headed off on their own obviously still confused as to what they had just heard. kakashi was busy shaking his head as iruka was laughing at the two chunin's responses once they were out of earshot. twirling around to walk backwards iruka asked kakashi.  
"so whats next?"  
shaking his head kakashi replied that he thought one trip to the hospital was enough for the day, iruka just smiled at him before saying that they could do something else like taijitsu.   
"why don’t we work on your genjitsu, that way you'll be stationary and cant actually get hurt"  
iruka pouted, he hated genjitsu. kakashi smiled as he pulled the man along, they could do that at the apartment. iruka sighed but allowed the man to pull him along with little fuss.  
entering the apartment they were greeted by a very happy to see them mayonaka, she whined when she saw iruka's arm and sniffed at the bandages.  
"its alright girl, im fine"  
he petted her head and continued on into the living room. kakashi followed close behind. the jounin instructed iruka to sit on the couch as kakashi knelt in front of the chunin. they both disregarded the ninken who curled up beside iruka’s normal place by the chair, waiting for the chunin to retire to his favorite spot. once they were situated did kakashi tell the man.  
"alright we'll start with something light, see if you cant break the genjitsu and work our way up from there ok?"  
iruka nodded, taking a deep breath he prepared for whatever kakashi had in mind. he watch in fascination as the man moved his hitae revealing the sharingan. in an instant he was trapped in an illusion.

*******

iruka was in some kind of forest, he could hear the birds singing and the wind rustling through the trees. smiling he enjoyed it for a second before calling out.  
"too easy"

******

iruka smiled as kakashi blinked as they found themselves back in the living room.   
"alright good, now lets try something a little harder ne"  
iruka nodded and didn’t fight the pull of the sharingan as he was lost into another world.

**********

he glanced around, he appeared to be in konoha, but there was nobody around. then he heard it. the horrible sound from all those years ago. turning around he saw the fury on the nine tails face as its tails swirled through the air. iruka shivered, how he hated that sound. how many times had he heard that noise in his nightmares? swallowing a couple times iruka cleared his mind before pulling against the illusion that he knew himself to be trapped in, it took a couple tries before he was able to break the illusions hold.

***********

iruka jolted a little as he was thrown back into the present from their connection ending. kakashi didn’t seem to be any worse for the wear. sighing iruka muttered.  
"i hate that sound"  
kakashi gave him a sympathizing smile, the pair of them smirked when mayonaka whined at iruka, having come over when she saw the distress of the chunin’s body language. iruka patted the dog a couple times, whispering to her that he was fine. she begrudgingly returned to lay beside the mans chair to wait once more. with the ninken once more out of the way kakashi waited a moment before asking if iruka was ready to continue. when the chunin nodded kakashi threw the man into another scenario. this time kakashi chose to make the illusion more involved. he was curious to see how the chunin would do when faced with something that kakashi was sure to bring bad memories to the man. it needed to be done of course, enemies exploited all weaknesses and coddling the chunin wouldn’t help either of them. with that in mind kakashi spun the illusion and pulled iruka into a world of his own making.

*************

iruka was standing in the middle of a shadowed part of the forest, it was dark, extremely so. the chunin froze, he knew he wasn’t alone. he could sense someone was with him, turning around iruka took a step back. iruka balked at the sight of his sensei smiling at him, that smile, the same one that always made him wonder if the man was going to hurt him again. iruka knew this couldn’t be real, but at the same time his fears of the man coming back for him rose from within.  
"iruka, how i've missed you"  
hearing that voice once more froze the chunin in place, his eyes widened as he watched the man move towards him. reaching out as if to touch him, iruka flinched as the mans hand cupped his cheek. it was just like before, it never changed. pulling back iruka saw the smile slowly being replaced with anger. he saw the man raise his hand a knife in hand and watched in horror as it came slashing down towards his chest. iruka slammed his eyes closed and shouted.  
“your not real!”

*******

bolting forward neither of the two shinobi were prepared for the chunin’s reaction to the illusion. the sudden change from illusion to reality was lost on iruka as he bolted to get away from his sensei even though the man wasn’t there. their heads collided with quite a bit of force as the chunin lunged forward from the couch. the pair went crashing to the floor, iruka on top of kakashi's chest. they both groaned and reached for their foreheads.   
kakashi knew he should have made sure he wasn’t too close to the chunin in case he reacted to the illusions. but he had thought it would be alright and that he would respond in time. he was apparently wrong. kakashi pushed mayonaka away as the dog came running over to inspect them.  
“go lay down girl.”  
she whined at the order, but after kakashi pointed once more the ninken did as order. returning his hand to rub his head kakashi looked down to see iruka curled up on his chest wincing and holding his forehead.  
"you ok?"  
iruka nodded as he willed the pain of both the illusion and the headbutt away.  
"sorry to use that against you but-"  
"its effective"  
came the mumbled reply. kakashi nodded.  
"yeah"  
sitting up iruka righted himself so he wasn’t splayed over kakashi. the two sat on the floor for a little while neither of them talking.  
"you had a harder time with that one, was it because of the subject matter or the level of genjitsu?"  
"subject matter, i knew in my head it wasn’t real"  
kakashi nodded his head before stating.  
"alright, we'll need to practice some more to get you desensitized in case someone uses those type of illusions against you"  
iruka nodded, he knew that would be the smart thing to do, it could very well end up saving his life. it didn’t make him look forward to it though. looking into the mismatched eyes of kakashi iruka couldn’t help but wonder what it was like to see through another persons eye. kakashi noticed him starring and figured the man was just curious about his sharingan.  
"curious?"  
iruka blushed before apologizing. kakashi laughed a little.  
"its alright, im used to it"  
iruka shook his head.  
"still i shouldn’t have starred."  
pulling the chunin's chin around to make the man face him kakashi stated.  
"it doesn’t bother me if you stare iruka."  
iruka was still blushing which kakashi found rather cute on the chunin. finally the chunin managed to ask the question plaguing his mind.  
"whats it like? seeing through another persons eye?"  
smiling kakashi answered the question as well as he could.  
"at first it was too weird to even describe, i couldn’t control the sharingan at all of course and it drained all my chakra, that’s when i figured out that i need to keep it covered all the time unless i was using it. for the most part its just like anything else its an extension of my body. i use it just like i use my hands and feet."  
iruka nodded, he could understand that. kakashi then added.  
"though i do have to say not having complete control over the eye can be embarrassing at times."  
frowning iruka asked what he meant. chuckling kakashi said.  
" the eye was a gift from my teammate and obito was a bit of a cry baby, sometimes his eye will just start to cry even if im ok with a situation"  
smiling iruka couldn’t help but say.  
"it must be nice to still have a connection to him though"  
"it is"  
kakashi said honestly. reaching up to cover his eye again, he saw iruka watch him and smiled. once the hitae was back in place the jounin clapped his hands and said that they were done for the day.  
"you did pretty well, though i would fail you on the escape test just because you allowed injury to yourself"  
iruka pouted at that mumbling that he had still technically escaped. ignoring the chunin kakashi continued.  
"but you did pretty well with the illusions. you'll get more practice with kurenai than with me, she's a master at them, makes them almost seamless. i’ll mostly be working with you with jutsu’s and stealth."  
"i cant wait"  
laughing kakashi patted the mans back as he stood up.  
"mah its not so bad, i'd worry more about training with asuma and his trench blades."  
standing up iruka popped his neck before asking why.  
"well he can extend their reach with his chakra, so the cut doesn’t just start at the length of the blade it can start a couple inches before the actual steel"  
iruka blinked at him before stating sourly.  
"well that just sounds awesome"  
kakashi smiled at the man, they both returned to their normal seating arrangements, relaxing in their respective spots. iruka was idly petting mayonaka, soothing the ninken as he began talking about this and that with kakashi until it was time for them to go to bed. it had been a long day and iruka had no problem going to bed besides the ache in his arm, which he wasn’t about to admit too. he knew he would just catch more flak from kakashi. instead he called mayonaka to his side upon standing and left the jounin for the night.

**********

iruka didn’t sleep too well that night, his arm throbbing from the burn he'd inflicted on himself, he was thankful that he had tomorrow off from work but secretly dreaded if they were going to train with his arm like this. tossing for the hundredth time that night iruka finally gave up. sighing he rose from the bed and told mayonaka to stay quiet. the pair made it out to the living room and iruka found the book he'd been reading. reclining in his chair he continued where he had left off.  
kakashi's eye snapped open, something was off. sitting up in bed he looked across the hall to see that iruka’s door was open. something that never happened unless the man was awake. frowning the jounin threw off the blankets, getting out of bed he made his way to the doorway to see that the man was indeed missing from his bed. frowning he made his way down the hallway checking the bathroom and the library before coming around the corner into the living room. shaking his head kakashi put his hands on his hips.  
iruka's head was back against the chair a book lay open on his chest. he was obviously asleep. he didn’t look very comfortable though. looking down to the dog at his side the jounin asked.  
"why's he out here?"  
she whined a bit and raised her head to sniff at the bandaged arm. catching on kakashi spoke.  
"his arm's hurting him isn’t it"  
shaking his head and sighing he approached the chunin with all the intention to tell the man to go back to bed, but once he got close enough he shrugged his shoulders and carefully lifted the man into his arms.   
"come on mayonaka, its bed time"  
the dog faithfully followed the man carrying her master. kakashi was careful as he laid iruka down on the bed, covering the man up he rubbed the dogs ears as he went to leave. he made sure to leave the door open just in case iruka got up again. making his way back to his own bed he couldn’t help but be honest with himself that it had been nice to hold the man.

***********

iruka rolled over and winced as his arm was pressed into the covers, rolling back onto his back he sighed as the pain subsided. then his eyes bolted open, iruka had distinctly remembered reading in the living room and yet he was undeniably laying down on a bed. sitting up he noticed that he was back in his own room, mayonaka at his side.  
"how'd i get here?"  
the dog just wagged her tail at him before settling back down. still confused as to what had happened iruka slid out of the bed and got himself ready for another day of training. he was just strapping his weapons pouch on when kakashi knocked on the doorway. looking up he smiled to the man.  
"im guessing you somehow brought me back here?"  
iruka said with a bit of hesitation. kakashi nodded, not about to reveal that he actually carried the man. iruka still blushed to his amusement.   
"i guess im ready"  
kakashi nodded and started for the door. iruka said goodbye to his ninken and locked up the apartment before following the jounin. it wasn’t until kakashi started going down an unknown path that iruka spoke up.  
"umm training grounds are that way?"  
kakashi just smiled at him and continued, shrugging his shoulders iruka followed the man. it wasn’t long before he saw two black flags marking the beginning of a training area. the odd thing being that black wasn’t a color typically used for the flags of training areas. frowning he watched as kakashi did a hand signal and an invisible barrier opened to allow them to enter. iruka stayed close to the ninja not sure what was taking place. he watched kakashi reseal the area behind them before turning around and motioning him to continue. just as they were cresting a hill did it finally hit iruka, he saw the rest of kakashi's team waiting for them.  
"this is an anbu training field"  
kakashi smirked at him.  
"yep"  
joining the others they said good morning to one another before genma spoke up rather chipperly.  
"you ready to get taught a lesson in anbu training?"  
iruka just smiled before stating.  
"i think i'll be alright, if all else fails i can just hide in the tree's"  
that made genma pout and others laugh. it was kurenai who spoke up.  
"no hiding unless your using it to your advantage in battle, you wont be able to avoid all your enemies that way"  
iruka shrugged before muttering that it had worked before. she smiled at him before asking who was going to start with iruka first. not surprisingly it was genma who stepped forward.  
"alright lets see what you got"  
the others backed away to observe the two fight when iruka smiled at genma and asked.  
"do i even want to know how many senbon you brought with you?"  
iruka was well aware of the man’s inclination towards the weapons, the others chuckled behind him which gave him a good idea. genma just shrugged his shoulders before replying.  
" i'll let you start first"  
iruka raised an eyebrow, genma was known for being a little cocky from time to time. sighing iruka nodded before pulling out a single kunai and launching at the nin. genma of course easily avoided the weapon simply stating.  
"really? that’s the best you could come up with for a first move?"  
iruka shrugged before jumping into the tree above him. it was kakashi who pointed behind genma, catching the mans attention. twisting around genmas eyes widened. the ground was completely eaten away.  
"how'd?"  
kakashi just laughed at the ninja.  
"i'd be more careful if i were you"  
frowning genma took off into the forest, determined to get the upper hand on the chunin. the group watched as the pair took off into the forest, reclining against a tree it was asuma who asked.  
"im guessing he did that with you?"  
kakashi nodded his head.  
"yeah, but not as obvious. don’t know how he does it though, didn’t bother to ask. it speaks for itself"  
they nodded as they could hear the sounds of weapons clanging together in the distance. it wasn’t too long before they heard a rather startled yell followed by a loud crash.  
"and that would be his log trap"  
kakashi chuckled to himself. glancing to kakashi the others were quite perplexed. the man shrugged before stating.  
"hes very good with traps"  
they nodded as they heard genma cursing in the distance trying to call out iruka into an open fight.  
"iruka isn’t about to fight him out in the open is he?"  
looking to raidou kakashi shook his head.  
"no, he knows where his skills lie, and being stealthy is at the top. being out in the open he would be at a disadvantage. something we need to work on with him, he's not always going to have the ability to run"  
they nodded, it was true that in some instances you just couldn’t turn your back on an enemy even for a second. it could cost you or your teammates their lives. rather suddenly iruka came running through the brush a smile on his face.   
"ano sorry raidou but i think i pissed him off"  
raidou waved a hand at the chunin and asked why he wasn’t still running.  
"i have a couple minutes before he gets around what i laid out"  
they raised their brows to him. either he was being cocky for once or he truly believed that genma was going to be held back by whatever traps he had laid out. before they could ask anything there was a large explosion behind iruka. the chunin smiled and looked behind him.  
"yeah, that’s my cue."  
racing off past them, they followed the man as he disappeared once more into the forest. it was only a couple minutes later that an angry genma came through the same trail. he had obviously been caught in the tail end of whatever blast iruka had caught him in, his clothing was singed and he was covered in soot.  
"im gonna kill him"  
"now now genma, that’s not the point"  
kakashi pacified the man, genma just glared at kakashi before stating.  
"do you know what he just did with a explosive tag, that is not how their supposed to be used"  
kakashi tilted his head before offering up.  
"i think it was his jutsu actually"  
genma just shook his head before walking rather calmly back into the forest to track down the chunin. iruka was making him look bad and that just wouldn’t stand. the others were amused by the chunin's ability to rile up their teammate. it wasn’t too long before they heard a couple more traps being set off. smirking a little kakashi said.  
"he really likes logs, cant remember how many of those i had to avoid"  
the others regarded the silver haired nin silently for a moment before a sudden tremor shook the ground. that they knew was from genma. raidou sighed.  
"well iruka had a good head start, but he's not going to be able to out run that"  
they all nodded, even kakashi didn’t believe that the ninja was fast enough for avoiding genma's earthquake jutsu, it tore everything apart in its wake and made it hard to get to safe ground. he could only silently hope that the chunin didn’t get to badly injured by his teammate.   
some time passed and all was quiet, they were starting to wonder if something had happened to the pair when iruka suddenly walked through a tree a couple feet in front of them, he was panting lightly but smiling. he had quite a few developing bruises and a couple lacerations, but didn’t appear to be really hurt.  
"umm raidou you might want to go let him down"  
"down?"  
the anbu questioned curiously. iruka nodded as he took a seat, catching his breath a moment he replied.  
"i might have tied him up a little"  
raidou shook his head before stating.  
"im sure he can get out of it"  
iruka shrugged, he'd leave it to them to go investigate when the man didn’t return. it was some ten minutes later that a very perturbed genma came walking into the field, he had a couple cuts on him, but was otherwise fine. glaring to the chunin who he was supposed to be giving a run for his money he couldn’t help but retort.  
"did you teach that to naruto cause that would explain a few things"  
iruka laughed a little before responding.  
"no he figured that out all on his own"  
the ninja humphed before sitting down in raidou’s lap. once he was seated he asked.  
"you have a lot of patience i'll give you that"  
iruka smirked back at the irritated ninja.  
"i've worked with kids for the last twelve years i would hope i was patient"  
genma smiled at the man.  
"yeah but setting that many traps in such a small area and not setting one off yourself that takes talent"  
iruka blushed a little much to their amusement before muttering a thanks. they let the man catch his breath before asuma stood up and told the chunin to get ready. remembering what kakashi had told him about the mans blades he took a couple extra steps back, it didn’t go unnoticed. asuma smiled at him.  
"you wont be running and hiding from me"  
iruka took a deep breath, he knew his strengths lied in being in the tree's being caught out in the open would not go over well. once kurenai said to start he raced for the nearest tree only to skid to a stop and duck as one of asuma's blades nearly cut off his head. sliding underneath the nin he continued to try for the forest. again he was forced back as asuma appeared in front of him. frowning at the much larger man, iruka knew what he was doing. he was preventing him from getting to the safety of the forest. keeping him out in the open to fight him one on one.   
"i forfeit"  
he called out rather suddenly, causing them all to raise their brows.  
"excuse me?"  
asuma said with some speculation.  
"i said i forfeit, im no match for you out in the open, i know that. and i really don’t want to get carved up by those blades of yours"  
iruka pointed to asuma’s trench blades which were glowing with the flow of his chakra to extend their range. asuma frowned at the chunin before reminding him.  
"you don’t get an option in this iruka, your enemies aren’t just going to let your forfeit"  
iruka shrugged before nonchalantly stating.  
"your not my enemy"  
"i am right now"  
again the chunin shrugged at the man. frowning at the chunin he though about how he could force the man to fight him. it was kakashi who yelled out to iruka.  
"come on iruka just try and hit him with those corrosive blades of yours, that'll keep him at bay"  
asuma glared at his teammate before calling out.  
"your not supposed to be helping him"  
kakashi said oops before falling quiet again among the group as the others laughed. iruka smiled, he knew they didn’t know how he made his blade corrosive and he really didn’t want to show that to them. he remembered how his teammates had reacted to seeing it. he didn’t want them to look at him the same way.  
"cant, im all out"  
asuma frowned at the man, even from this distance he could tell the man was lying. they all could, the real reason was why. they continued to stand in front of each other in a stand still until iruka called out.  
"umm so what now?"  
asuma straightened his back before stalking towards the man, he wasn’t going to let the chunin get off so easy. iruka's eyes widened and he quickly started back peddling away from the armed man. now in the center of the field, iruka knew he had no hope of reaching any of the tree's before asuma got to him. he was really screwed now. he tried to think of some way to get passed the man, but asuma was closing in. mind racing he quickly performed the hand signs and grasped a fireball to launch at the man. once it was thrown he raced for the tree line. asuma dodged the attack easily and went to cut off the man. only mildly shocked when the fireball didn’t burn something behind him but instead exploded the area where it landed. he would have to keep that in mind.  
watching the two go back and forth it was kurenai who asked.  
"why do you think he's lying?"  
"he doesn’t like showing what he can do, mostly because of the council believing him to be like orochimaru. he's trying to distance himself from him, but in return he's limiting what he can use against us for fear of being judged."  
they glanced to kakashi and nodded, it made sense that the kind hearted man didn’t want to be thought of being the same as his twisted sensei. but leaving himself open to attack wasn’t the right way to go about changing peoples opinions of him. they watched as asuma closed in and swiped his blades only to have iruka duck and try and kick him in the stomach. asuma avoided the leg swung out to him and instead tried to bring his knives down to cut into the outstretched leg. the larger man managed to graze the chunin's leg and heard the chunin hiss in pain as he tumbled backwards. a couple feet apart he took in the teachers appearance, he had some cuts and scrapes, but so far the cut on his leg was the worst.   
iruka didn’t bother to glance down at his leg, he could feel the blood sliding down his pants. he knew he couldn’t afford to take his eyes off of asuma lest he find himself in a death hold by the man.  
"that was better, but you need to attack with intent"  
asuma called out to the man he was training. iruka didn’t say anything at first before responding.  
"i don’t want to hurt you"  
asuma shook his head before admitting.  
"then your never going to get better"  
frowning at the man opposite of him, iruka tried to think about how he could win the match without using any of the other techniques he'd learned over the years. he'd already shown too much to them. taking out a kunai, he twisted it around in his palm, fingering the steel trying to decided if he should waste it by launching it at his opponent out in the open. it would waste the kunai, but give him an opportunity to get close enough to try and render the man unable to attack.  
palming the kunai, he prepared to throw it at the man a crossed from, having anchored the kunai with some string he would easily be able to call it back to himself and use it again and possibly injure the man on its return trip. with his plan formulated in his mind iruka set about launching the kunai. he swiftly followed the projectile, ready to clash with asuma.  
asuma raised his trench blades prepared to block the kunai and defend against whatever iruka was about to do. deflecting the kunai he raised his left arm to bring down a blade to cut the ninja, only to wince when the kunai he had just dodged was pulled back and sliced into his arm, the cut was shallow, but it bled none the less. starring at the chunin who was only a couple feet away from him he had to ask.  
"that was your plan? give me a paper cut?"  
iruka just shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t know what else to do. about to charge at the ninja asuma found he couldn’t move his arm, it lay at his side unresponsive. he watched as his trench blade fell to the ground useless as his fingers went numb.  
the others watched as for some reason asuma dropped his knife, they didn’t know what was going on until asuma asked.  
"what'd you do?"  
iruka smiled before explaining.  
"it'll ware off in a couple minutes, but i could easily do the same with the rest of your body, all i need is a paper cut"  
asuma watched the nin carefully. iruka had managed to inject him with something from the single kunai and he wanted to know what it was.  
"what is it?"  
iruka didn’t answer instead asking.  
"you forfeit?"  
sighing, asuma knew he was at a disadvantage with his arm not working, but was sure that he could take the chunin with only one arm, but he saw the ninja fingering another kunai ready to throw it. sighing he decided answers were better than being frozen in place.  
"i forfeit"  
iruka smiled and put the kunai back in his pouch before approaching asuma. relaxing his shoulders asuma smiled at iruka.  
"so what is it?"  
making their way over to the group who were relaxing iruka calmly stated.  
"pit viper venom"  
they were all rather shocked that the chunin had actually used such a weapon against asuma, but were more intrigued as to how he had some on him. iruka smiled and pulled up his sleeve revealing a small snake wrapped around his arm. their eyes widened, they hadn’t seen him cast his summons. pulling the snake free from around his arm, iruka sat in the circle and pet the snake gently with a few fingers. he was nervous how they would take this. it was asuma who started laughing, breaking up the awkward silence.  
"i never saw you do the summoning ritual, your hands not cut though how'd you?"  
iruka pulled up his pant leg to show the dripping blood from his leg. then it dawned on them, he'd used his chakra to make the contract come to life using the blood running down his leg.  
"anyways, its not gonna last much longer, this guys too small to do any damage."  
asuma nodded his head, kurenai had taken his hand, but he couldn’t feel it at the moment. she had a light frown to her face and when he smiled to her she relaxed.  
"anymore tricks you've got up your sleeves?"  
iruka shook his head at genma.  
"i can assure you i have no more snakes on my person, it'd be too uncomfortable to move with them, they'd be more likely to bite me if i kinked their tails and then i'd be screwed instead of the person i was fighting."  
the anbu listened intently to the chunin, his summons were powerful, it was obvious with such a small snake being able to immobilize asuma's arm so fast, but to know that they would just as easily turn on their contract holder, iruka had to be careful when dealing with them.   
iruka knew that they were each processing in their own way what they had witnessed and he hadn’t missed the frown on kurenai's face when she realized what he had done to asuma. he didn’t want to argue with them,but this was the reason why he didn’t use his skills. people would always look at him differently. picking up the snake in his hand he thanked it before sending it on its way. it disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving the chunin with the anbu.  
"it didn’t ask for anything in return?"  
asuma was curious, he had heard how blood thirsty the snakes could be. iruka just smiled at him, refusing to answer. deciding to lighten the mood kakashi suggested that they break for lunch.


	19. lunch with anbu and other such humiliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the group goes to lunch together and get to chat about the things they've noticed about the chunin. iruka is forced to answer some of the groups questions as it seems anbu aren't the type to leave things alone. an embarrassing encounter between iruka and kakashi back at the apartment causes a brief clash between the two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day. also we have officially reached 100,000 words! which means there's still 142,000 words to go. yes the story really is that long. i'm pretty much incapable of writing short stories, so dont hold your breath on anything i write being shorter than 100,000 words. that said i do have some short fics up right now in a different fandom. they were a tough thing for me to write because of my penchant for throwing plot in. and keep in mind that what i consider a short story is really not a short story at all. lol.

the walk back into town was quiet, asuma still didn’t have the use of his arm, which only seemed to concern kurenai more. iruka knew that the man would be fine, but it seemed like his guarantee wasn’t enough. instead of letting himself overthink things, he let it go. they'd either treat him differently from now on or they wouldn’t. there was nothing he could do to change that now that he had played his hand.  
finding a restaurant they were seated quickly and waited for their drinks to be brought. leaning against the booth iruka relaxed for a moment, this was more of a workout than he'd gotten in a long time and he was definitely feeling it.  
"tired?"  
frowning at genma the chunin stuck his tongue out at him. this just made the anbu laugh at him.  
"real mature"  
iruka shrugged before commenting  
"i've been around the kids too long"  
genma snorted at that and stole a sip of raidou’s drink which earned him a light scowl from his lover. iruka smiled at the pair. he was about to say something when asuma suddenly lifted his hand on his own and wiggled his fingers.  
"ok that is the weirdest feeling ever"  
iruka laughed as the man wiggled his fingers to try and get them back to normal.  
"yeah, it does feel weird. you get used to it though"  
taking a drink of his tea iruka didn’t catch how the group all looked at him. it was kakashi who asked.  
"what do you mean by used to it?"  
looking up iruka realized what he had said, he hadn’t meant to blurt something like that out, especially not to them. swallowing a bit stiffly the chunin admitted to the wary eyes watching him.  
"ano-i've been bitten before"  
"how many times?"  
asuma asked with a frown on his face. sighing iruka waved them off, but it didn’t seem the anbu were willing to let it go. it was kurenai who asked.  
"why did they bite you?"  
iruka shrugged back at the kunoichi.  
"they were ordered too"  
he let the sentence hang he knew they were smart enough to put the pieces together and he really didn’t want to have to say it.  
"orochimaru?"  
and there it was, he just nodded before reclining against the booth again.  
"why did he do that?"  
looking to the confused faces, iruka couldn’t help but try and smile at them, try and alleviate their concerns.  
"why has he done any of the things he's done? he felt it was necessary i guess, look its not a big deal. it happened ages ago"  
they still weren’t pacified by the chunin's ability to just let something like that go.  
"and you didn’t tell anyone?"  
iruka sighed, they were like a dog with a bone. shaking his head iruka explained.  
"no-there was no reason too, its not like he was trying to kill me- at least im pretty sure that wasn’t his aim. he was just testing me"  
the anbu finally let it drop since their food arrived. eating in relative silence it was raidou who spoke up next.  
"after lunch you'll be going against me"  
iruka smiled to the nin before stating rather sarcastically.  
"i cant wait"  
the other nin laughed at iruka’s enthusiasm. finishing their meal, they paid and left the restaurant to return to the training field. asuma had regained the full use of his arm and had it wrapped around kurenai as they walked. iruka felt happy for them, to be able to have someone to share your life with, it had been so long since he had that-and when he did it had always been tainted by pain. so much pain. shaking his head to clear his thoughts he saw kakashi raise an eyebrow to him, he just smiled at the jounin before continuing through the barrier and into the training field. 

once the group was settled, raidou approached iruka and informed him that he was going to mostly be focusing on taijitsu with him. iruka nodded and prepared to defend himself. the chunin blinked when the man disappeared in front of him only to have himself kicked to the ground from behind rather suddenly. crashing to the ground he grit his teeth, he didn’t have long to pout though, the chunin had to roll out of the way as another kick was aimed at where his head had been laying. a crater resulted from the impact and iruka was grateful he hadn’t stuck around any longer. getting to his feet he watched his opponent carefully, he had no doubts that this was going to be hard. he wasn’t the best at taijitsu, but he was going to give it his all. they traded blows back and forth with iruka taking more than giving. being pushed back by the blow to his chest iruka panted as he waited for the nin to attack him again. he was going to be black and blue come morning time. resolving himself to some more discomfort iruka charged at raidou and aimed a kick for the nin's head, only to find himself on his back when the nin used his momentum against him. coughing a bit he rolled to his side and got back to his feet. damn that had hurt.  
they watched as raidou handed iruka's ass to him over and over again. it was obvious that iruka didn’t focus too much on hand to hand combat. he was going to need quite a few more sessions to be able to hold his own in battle. it was asuma who asked kakashi.  
"did you know about the snakes?"  
"he'd mentioned something before, but i never thought it was like that."  
the smoking nin nodded as he lit another cigarette. kurenai was watching the battle before asking.  
"how do you think he's going to fare against me?"  
kakashi shrugged before informing her.  
"we did an exercise at the apartment, he did fairly well until i introduced orochimaru into the illusions. then he just froze. that’s his weak point for sure."  
the red eyed shinobi nodded her head, she knew she had to use his weaknesses against him, but she didn’t want to hurt the man by bringing up raw memories like she had to during his investigation. they all winced as iruka was thrown to the ground once more. iruka only groaned this time, not bothering to try and get up.  
"i think there almost done"  
they all nodded as they watched raidou help the chunin off the ground and walk him back to the group. sitting down iruka coughed while bracing his ribs. he was going to be one sore shinobi tomorrow.  
"well your not bad, but your not great either"  
iruka nodded before commenting.  
"i'd really like to hit you right now"  
the others laughed as the chunin made his ire known to his teacher. raidou just smiled encouragingly to the chunin.  
"you'll get to hit me back eventually"  
iruka stuck out his tongue in his defense much to the amusement of his fellow shinobi. kakashi rubbed his hands together in glee.  
"well you get a break from the physical torture, now you get to deal with her"  
he pointed over to kurenai. iruka groaned.  
"cant i take a rain check"  
the nin laughed before telling the chunin no, he could not have a rain check. sighing iruka nodded and asked what kurenai wanted him to do.  
"just relax and let me start the illusion, once its started you can try and break it."  
iruka nodded and let himself meet the woman’s eyes. it was barely a moment later that he let himself fall into a different world.

**********

iruka looked around, at first he didn’t see anything and then it all became clear. he was laying on the forest floor looking at the sky. he smiled for a moment until he registered that he wasn’t alone. he knew he needed to look,but another part of his brain told him he wouldn’t like what he saw. turning his head to the side irukas eyes widened.  
there before him were the cold dead eyes of an unknown ninja, shivering iruka pulled back away from the body. glancing around he found himself to be alone, just him and the body. then like some sick joke the eyes blinked and the body started to move. reeling back in the terror racing up his spine, he fought against the scene playing out before his eyes. he felt the typical resistance. he fought harder as the body started to crawl towards him, its mouth open to show its bloody teeth. the smell of rot and death all around it. screaming he through himself against the invisible barrier and broke through the illusion.

********

panting iruka took a minute to realize he was back among the anbu. looking up startled he glanced around before his eyes made contact with kurenai, frowning a bit he stated.  
"zombies really?"  
she smiled at him, shaking his head iruka muttered about bad horror movies much to the amusement of the men around him.  
"alright iruka lets try something harder, you ready"  
sighing he nodded his head and let her pull him into another illusion.

*******

he couldn’t see, there was something all over him, sticky and thick. the taste of copper in his mouth. spitting didn’t get rid of the horrid taste and rubbing at his eyes did nothing to clear away the fluid flowing from his face. eyes widening iruka knew what was going on, his face hurt. he was bleeding. he distinctly heard the noise of battle around him and the horrible noise of someone gasping for breath. finally clearing his vision enough iruka saw his dead teammate. struggling to bring in air, the kunai that had once been lodged in his chest lay discarded on the ground. iruka shook his head back and forth in terror he knew what was coming, who was coming.  
sure enough a moment passed and his sensei arrive spouting off how the boys had been foolish, he felt the cool hands trying to move his face to get a better look at his wound and just like last time he cried out to his sensei to look at the other boy. the eyes glared hotly into him, forcing iruka to shrink back in fear.  
"he's dead"  
came the cold tone from his sensei. shaking his head iruka went to twist his head around his sensei only to see that the boy's neck was distinctly twisted, the bones out of place. the boy no longer gasped for breath but lay there with eyes unseeing. again iruka felt the cold hands pulling him back to the present. he saw the anger on his sensei's face.  
"look at what you've done to yourself"  
"i-im sorry"  
he muttered on instinct anything to make the man not mad at him. somewhere in his mind he registered that the sounds of battle were no longer around them and that his third teammate had disappeared from the scene along with the dead boy. leaving him all alone with the angry sanin.  
"i-"  
"look at what you did! now your ruined"  
the man shouted, iruka winced and for the first time tried to struggle against the memory of their argument, it had taken place after they had returned to the village. but iruka knew what was going to happen and didn’t wish to repeat it.  
"i'm sorry sensei"  
his younger self cried out as the sanin loomed over him. jerking against the illusion the chunin was silently whispering to himself 'its not real its not real' he just couldn’t seem to get his mind to focus enough to force kurenai out of his head, out of this modified memory. he flinched when he felt the sanin grasp his arm, pulling him back to face him  
"don’t you dare try and run from me boy!"  
he shook in his place as he stood before the man who was angry with him. he didn’t bother to look to the mans hand he knew what was there. shaking he tried desperately to pull away from the man's grasp, to get free of the illusion playing out before him. the resistance he met was just too powerful and he was once again shoved back into the body of his younger self. left to feel the snake sanin's wrath. he heard the bone's in his wrist break, felt the snapping one by one, the pain came soon after and he screamed out much to the pleasure of the man before him.  
"see what you make me do-your weak, pathetic and useless"  
iruka cried out in pain as the arm was twisted, forcing the bones to grind together. he couldn’t take the pain it was just too much. the chunin screamed again, this time pleading for mercy.  
"i wont do it again i promise"  
"and what wont you do again iruka, tell me what you wont do again?"  
"i wont- i wont try and save them, i promise i promise sensei"  
the man threw him to the ground suddenly and stood over the boy.  
"you know they hold you back, they are your weakness and i will stomp out every last piece of weakness in you, myself if i have to iruka."  
to make his point the sanin raised his foot and iruka saw black.

*********

iruka fell backwards out of the genjitsu, only to have someone catch him and lower him to the ground. he was vaguely aware that he was crying, but his head hurt so much that he couldn’t bring himself to care. he let himself drift in and out for a while, letting his mind come back slowly away from the jarring sights and sounds of the illusion he’d just been subjected too.

*******

the anbu watched as kurenai put the man through his paces again, but this time it didn’t seem like iruka was going to get out of it, they could tell that he was fighting her, but it didn’t seem to be working for the chunin and soon they could see the fear on the man's face. they knew what ever he was facing had to be fierce for the man to show that much terror. when he started to cry they knew that it had to be a memory that kurenai had chosen to use against him. sighing, they got ready to catch the ninja, they knew he was going to react badly to the jutsu being broken. asuma sat behind kurenai in case she had a bad reaction to the jutsu, but he knew she could handle herself. kakashi sat beside iruka and waited patiently for the genjitsu to break.  
when the jutsu broke and iruka started to fall backwards, kakashi easily caught the man and laid him down on the ground. iruka's eyes were closed but based on his rapidly beating heart and the pace of his breathing, he was awake. looking to kurenai he saw the sad smile on her face. she twisted around and hugged asuma, that told them all they needed to know. training was over for today.  
"what'd you see?"  
asuma asked quietly, kurenai pulled away enough before taking a chance to look at the still comatose chunin before replying.  
"orochimaru was punishing him for helping his teammates, broke his arm in three places and stomped the kids face in"  
they winced, that was a harsh reaction to something the genin were supposed to do for one another. but considering who it had come from they weren’t to shocked that the sanin would consider it a weakness. leaning down kakashi whispered into irukas ear  
"its over"  
the man nodded, their head brushing against one another at he movement. kakashi watched as brown eyes opened and the chunin sighed. staring up at the sky, iruka couldn’t help but notice that it was a beautiful day, the sun was out the birds were chirping, nothing like those memories. iruka sat up with kakashi's help and looked over to the nervous form of kurenai. she was about to apologize he could tell so he beat her to the punch.  
"i couldn’t break those last ones, too strong for me"  
she nodded before trying to encourage him.  
"you'll get stronger with more practice, we'll go slow"  
iruka just smiled at her before glancing around to all the shinobi who had helped to train him today. thanking them for their help before standing albeit a little wobbly and saying that he was going to head back to the apartment. kakashi asked if he would be alright on his own for a little bit and iruka nodded.  
"mayonaka is probably hungry by now and i have a little bit of reading to catch up on, i'll see you later."  
he waved at them before making his way out of the training grounds and headed back to the apartment where he could seek shelter.  
the anbu sighed once the chunin was gone. they had learned a lot about him today, his strengths and his weaknesses. now they just had to find a way to work around the man's bad memories to get him ready for his test.

***********

iruka made his way to the apartment, slowly, his whole body hurt and his head was still foggy from the genjitsu. he shuddered as the memories flashed before his eyes again as he walked. shaking his head cleared the chunin’s eyesight but made his head hurt more. holding himself tighter iruka was glad when he saw the apartment building in view. climbing the stairs he fished out the key to the apartment and let himself in, only to be greeted by a very enthusiastic iruka. smiling at her he knelt down wincing as he did so to stroke her head. the dog whined at him and he smiled reassuringly to the dog. before climbing back to his feet. he knew what he needed right now and he was determined to do what he felt he needed at the moment. he would take this rare opportunity to indulge himself especially with kakashi gone.

**********

they sat around in a circle together and analyzed the chunins apparent abilities, they knew he was still holding back, he refused to show his real talent to them for some reason or another.   
"when's his next day off?"  
"two days"  
kakashi commented. they nodded, that would give the chunin some time to not only clear his head but heal up a bit before they dragged him through his paces again. it was kurenai who warned kakashi.  
"he might have nightmares after what i made him see"  
kakashi nodded he knew that was a distinct possibility, but it was worth it in the end if it made him a stronger ninja.  
"i wouldn’t be surprised with the one involving his sensei and all, but did you really show him zombies?"  
she smiled before telling them that she had incorporated a dead shinobi into the illusion, but that although it had frightened the man, he was more annoyed than actually scared.   
"and the one with orochimaru?"  
kurenai thought a moment before explaining what she had done.  
"there were two, i wanted to see if he could notice the transition and break out of it that way, but either he didn’t notice or he was just too scared to try and resist at that moment. the first one was him with his teammate during the mission where orochimaru killed the boy who was already dying. i altered it a bit, sped it up and made the background noise disappear so it was just him and orochimaru. then i transitioned to when they were back in the village. orochimaru had dragged him out somewhere and was just shouting at him, calling him weak and useless, he grabbed iruka’s arm and just started twisting, iruka couldn’t have fought back against the stronger man and his arm just started snapping as he continued to twist.”  
taking a deep breath kurenai continued.  
“ iruka begged him to stop, begged him and all he did was tell him to never try and help his teammates again and that he was determined to beat that lesson into him. that’s when he stomped on iruka’s face and i ended the jutsu, i knew he couldn’t take anymore and it was obvious he wasn’t going to break the jutsu at that point."  
the woman’s voice trailed off as she gave a little hiccup for having done that to the man. asuma wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. just because she had a knack for genjitsu didn’t mean she took pleasure in what she could make others relive.  
"and i thought my sensei was rough"  
genma muttered, raidou rubbed his lovers arm.  
"there's more-so much more i could see his mind just flitting around in the chaos, there's so many memories like that-it wasn’t a one time thing"  
they all knew what a sick bastard orochimaru was, but to torture his own student that way, and repeatedly. it was amazing that iruka hadn’t gone insane or turned out exactly like the snake sanin. kakashi sighed, gaining their attention.  
"we have to push through it, he needs our help to get stronger. even if we don’t like what we see or hear. we wouldn’t be doing him any good to let him take that exam and fail because we couldn’t push his limits because we were afraid of hurting him."  
the group nodded their heads, they understood. sighing kakashi rose to his feet and stretched.  
"think im gonna head back, make sure he hasn’t managed to burn water again"  
they stared at him utterly confused. laughing a little kakashi explained how he had to rescue the poor chunin's fingers from the pot of boiling water. they shook their heads. it was asuma who said.  
"and he was throwing fireballs today?"  
they laughed, waving goodbye, kakashi began the short trip back to his apartment.

************************************

climbing the stairs the jounin unlocked the front door and toed off his shoes, he saw iruka's but didn’t hear the man. figuring he was reading he walked into the living room only to find it empty. confused he turned around to see mayonaka staring at him. smiling at the dog kakashi asked.  
“where’s iruka huh?”  
the dog started down the hallway, following he stopped at the bathroom, the door was shut and no sound came from within. after a few moments of no noise coming from inside the closed off space dread began to coat his insides.  
"iruka?"  
there was no answer, reaching for the door handle he twisted it only to find it locked. swallowing kakashi called out again.  
"iruka"  
again no answer, frowning the jounin glanced down to mayonaka and questioned   
"how long has he been in there?"  
the dog whined and laid down. kakashi didn’t like that reaction, not one bit. knocking on the door he tried one last time to get a response before invading the man's privacy.  
"c'mon iruka answer me"  
still there was no answer. not willing to wait another moment kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke only to reappear on the other side of the door. he blinked, not believing what he was seeing. iruka was laying in the bathtub, naked, asleep. blushing the jounin turned around and yelled out the man’s name. he heard the loud splash as the man was jolted awake hearing his name.  
"gah kakashi get out"  
nodding kakashi couldn’t help but try and defend himself.  
"you fell asleep while in the tub"  
"get out!"  
unlocking the door, he quickly exited the room,pulling the door closed behind him. looking to the dog staring up at him he couldn’t help but mutter.  
"thanks for warning me"  
he walked down the hallway and entered the living room he had no doubt that he was going to hear more from the chunin about this incident.

*********

iruka was bright red, a towel wrapped around his body he dripped water on the bathroom floor. he'd somehow managed to fall asleep in the warm water, kakashi must have knocked and when he didn’t answer he probably tried the door. it didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened after the man found the door locked. taking a deep breath iruka couldn’t find it in himself to be angry at the man, he was just concerned for him. another part of him ached that the man didn’t trust him not to hurt himself. true he hadn’t tried since before his sentencing, but he was a high risk of doing it again, even he knew that.   
drying off iruka dressed himself in some loose clothing that would be comfortable and exited the room. mayonaka started wagging her tail the moment she saw him. smiling to the dog the chunin headed for his bedroom, he had laid out a first aid kit as he needed to wrap the cut on his leg as well as put a fresh bandage around his still healing arm.   
it didn’t work so well, it turned out he couldn’t do it one handed, he had managed to take care of his leg, but it was impossible for him to wrap his own arm up. sighing iruka took the kit with him and walked down the hallway to stand in the entrance way of the living room. kakashi was sitting in his chair just staring out the balcony door. clearing his throat, kakashi's head swiveled around sharply. not bothering to bring up the incident in the bathroom, iruka got straight to the point.  
"i need your help"  
kakashi nodded, when iruka held up the first aid kit kakashi smiled and motioned for the chunin to take a seat. making his way over to the couch he sat so kakashi could kneel in front of him. kakashi took the first aid kit and took out a roll of bandage, looking at the mans arm he was pleased to see that it was healing quite well on its own. one of the benefits of having chakra to help speed up ones natural healing abilities. kakashi began at the shoulder and started to gently but firmly wrap the bandage around and around the arm. once he reached the man's wrist he tucked the end of the bandage through one of its loops and tied a knot to secure it in place. looking up to the chunin he saw the man smiling at him.  
"thanks"  
kakashi nodded before standing up to return to his chair, but was held back when a hand wrapped around his wrist. glancing back to the chunin he saw iruka bite his lip. something he had seen the man do numerous times.  
"ano sorry about the bathroom, i didn’t mean to fall asleep"  
kakashi smiled before replying.  
"sorry for barging in, when you didn’t respond-"  
"you thought i had offed myself"  
kakashi was silent a moment before stating.  
"i couldn’t be certain you weren’t hurt. you could have passed out from the training or something"  
iruka knew that kakashi had thought he had tried to kill himself but it was nice of the man to try and spare his feelings with the lie about training. letting go of the other ninjas wrist, he stood and went over to his chair. relaxing iruka let his mind wander to the training they had done. it had been one hell of a workout.  
"hey kakashi?"  
"yeah?"  
"what was your jounin test like?"  
looking to the jounin found the man smiling as he thought back to when he was just a kid trying for the almighty title of jounin. kakashi truly had been just a kid, but he had managed to pass with ease. clearing his thoughts the jounin told iruka.  
"long and tiring, its been a long time since then. each persons test is different, they try you with your strengths and your weakness to see how you adapt and overcome things. so there's no way to know what your test will be like."  
iruka sighed, well so much for preparing himself. knowing what the man was thinking kakashi smiled before stating.  
"it will be a three day challenge, most likely in the forest of death, you'll have to survive not only the challenges but the normal inhabitants of the forest. find your own food, tend to your wounds and complete goals they set for you in a timely manner"  
iruka nodded, that gave him a better idea of what to expect. he had no illusions that the council were going to try and make his test impossible for him, the last thing they wanted was to pass him. he could only hope he didn’t wind up in the morgue because of it.  
"thanks"  
"no problem. other than my intrusion did you enjoy your bath"  
blushing iruka nodded his head. kakashi let out a laugh before apologizing once more to the chunin. iruka ignored the apology in favor of admitting.  
"i cant believe i fell asleep in the bathtub"  
iruka shook his head back and forth, kakashi just shrugged at him before stating.  
"your body was tired, you were warm and safe, makes sense to me"  
smiling at the jounin iruka asked what kakashi was going to do for the next two days while he was at work.  
"ano, probably annoy the hokage for a day mission"  
iruka shook his head and advised that kakashi just go to the missions desk for an assignment.  
"mah wheres the fun in that"  
laughing a little at the man's apparent need to cause trouble the chunin let his mind wander again. he was only able to be lost in his thoughts a while before kakashi said.  
"kurenai was shaken by what she showed you"  
iruka gave him a sad smile.  
"yeah, i know she doesn’t mean to hurt me, but like most shinobi i have bad memories"  
kakashi nodded his head.  
"yeah, we all certainly have those"  
kakashi couldn’t bring himself to argue that the memories shouldn’t have come from his sensei and that he should have been safe with the man, safe in konoha. before he could let himself wander into darker thoughts iruka stood up and said he was going to go fix some dinner for them. kakashi asked if he would like help and the ninja said that he could handle it. waiting until iruka was in the kitchen kakashi couldn’t help but call out to the chunin.  
"don’t over boil the water"  
"shut it"  
smirking he pulled out his book and started to read. it wasn’t long before a plate was being handed to him and they ate in comfortable silence. iruka only stayed up for another hour before turning in since he had work early in the morning. 

************

iruka's eye twitched, he swore that the enemy ninja were sending them false reports just to piss him off. so far he'd managed to translate three scrolls which only contained gibberish about fruit and vegetables. he knew it had to be some kind of code or it wouldn’t be on so many scrolls, but it was starting to irritate the chunin. iruka knew he could figure it out if he just pushed himself a little harder.  
then there was the fact that ibiki was riding his ass to find out when the second attack was coming. he'd been so stressed that he had actually yelled at the scarred man that maybe he should do his job better and find out from their prisoners when it was supposed to happen. he shuddered as he remembered what the man had said to him.  
"watch yourself iruka, i can make your darkest nightmares a reality in a heartbeat. you'll beg for orochimaru to come get you"  
shuddering iruka shook his head before returning to work. it wouldn’t do any good to reminisce over what had already happened. he could just do his best and hope that he found the information in time.

*******

kakashi was bored, after getting kicked out of the hokage’s tower and the missions room, he had no where else to go. he could of course always visit ibiki to annoy him, or check in on iruka but he figured he shouldn’t stress the tenuous relationship between the three of them. so he did some tidying up around the apartment, emptied the fridge out of old food and went and got new food. looking to the clock he smiled. iruka should be getting off work in a half an hour and then he would have company again. it was weird to find how much he had come to enjoy the man's company. he was used to living alone, except for the occasional visit from his teammates or having pakkun or one of the other nin dogs running around. it was a nice change.  
kakashi heard the door lock disengage and wasn’t surprised when an excited mayonaka came racing into the room to jump up for his attention. petting her head he called out to the chunin who was presumably taking off his sandals.  
"whats gotten into her?"  
kakashi watched as the chunin came into view, iruka looked tired, but he was smiling.  
"i can honestly say i have no friggin clue, but i do know that you are going to get to have her as company tomorrow. ibiki is having me sit in when they question someone and doesn’t want her around."  
kakashi froze upon hearing those words.  
"your sitting in on an interrogation?"  
he didn’t like the sound of that, not one bit. iruka shook his head.  
"no not really, they've kinda already done the whole torturing thing, the guys already said he would give them whatever they want, im just gonna be there to write all the shit down and cross reference it with the other information we have."  
"ah, ok."  
looking down to the hound that was now sitting at his feet kakashi asked.  
"and what would you like to do tomorrow? we cant go see the hokage cause she already threatened to emasculate me in three different ways can you believe that? the mission desk said that they weren’t going to assign me any missions since i haven’t turned in the paperwork from the last one and iruka is leaving us all alone while he's at work."  
iruka couldn’t help but laugh at the jounin. it would figure that kakashi would manage to get himself into that much trouble in only one afternoon.  
"i'd say you could come to work with me, but we know how ibiki feels about pets"  
iruka smiled playfully at the jounin who in return stuck out his tongue beneath his mask. realizing what the man was doing iruka burst into laughter before saying it wasn’t as effective with a mask on. kakashi pouted but agreed.  
the night went by pretty slowly for the two, falling into their typical rhythm of making dinner and talking with one another while reading. iruka went to bed before kakashi like he always did and kakashi checked in on him before going to his own room like he did every night without the chunin knowing.


	20. a painful reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things seem to be going so well now that iruka is living and training with kakashi. so it seems only fitting that iruka should let his guard down and make a careless mistake, lucky for the chunin that he has someone as awesome as kakashi to help him find his way again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another day another chapter. this one was pretty fun to write and the one im posting this afternoon is going to be even better. i wasn't lying when i said that things were going to start getting interesting. 
> 
> thanks for all the awesome comments, its a real boost to know that people want to read more.

iruka was sweating, they had cranked up the heat in the interrogation room to make the enemy nin as uncomfortable as possible during the final questioning, which meant iruka got to be in a sweltering room as well. it didn’t seem to even touch ibiki which just made the chunin wonder if he had some secret anti sweat jutsu on. smiling to himself he continued to record everything the enemy nin said.   
when he'd first entered the room iruka couldn’t believe the state of the man. he'd barely looked human, he shuddered to think if that would have been his fate.  
having finished with the interview, iruka gave all the information over to ibiki, the man was actually in a good mood for once and told iruka to take off early since he had no more use for him that day. smiling iruka had a skip in his step as he made his way down the road to the apartment. then out of the blue an idea struck him.  
he knew it probably wasn’t a good idea, but now that his life was returning to a somewhat normal appearance he couldn’t help but wonder if he could go about his old routine like he had before or if the hokage would bar him from returning there. he could already guess what ibiki or even kakashi would say about it, but iruka figured that it really wasn’t up to them. sighing he decided to try, at least after today he would know one way or another.  
entering the facility he signed in like always, the nin knew him by now so he was let through swiftly once all his weapons were accounted for. sitting at the table iruka waited for the man to be brought in. it didn’t take very long and the man he had been waiting for sat opposite to him.  
"how have you been?"  
iruka smiled gently. the man snorted back at iruka before stating.  
"thought they had executed you for treason"  
iruka just smiled at the man.  
"i was interrogated, but found to not be a direct threat to the village because i had no involvement with wave."  
"too bad"  
iruka sighed, this was how every visit went.   
"i was informed that you talked to ibiki about us"  
the man shrugged.  
"yeah so"  
"i was surprised that you cooperated so willingly."  
the man shrugged his shoulders before replying.  
"like i was gonna let ibiki torture me for something as stupid as information about me fucking you"  
iruka winced a little,he couldn’t help but feel the sting of the words spit at him. nodding his head iruka managed to keep a level head as he replied.  
"yes well, in the end it didn’t really matter"  
"i guess not"  
the man looked away from iruka, causing the chunin to catch sight of a few lingering bruises along the man’s body.  
"the guards said you got into a fight"  
the man shrugged his shoulders before replying hotly.  
"they also say your fucking hatake"  
the man twisted back around to give him a snide grin. iruka couldn’t believe that, were people really talking behind their backs? it wasn’t like they’d done anything. shaking his head iruka clarified for the man.  
"umm no, were just friends"  
the man just scoffed at his response before stating.  
"so were we remember"  
sighing iruka changed the subject and asked.  
"why'd you get into a fight?"  
"why do you care?"  
iruka gave him a pleading look before saying.  
"you know why i care"  
"because your stupid-you honestly believe that i give a shit about what happens to you?"  
iruka sighed, he should have figured that today would be no different than all the other times, but today he seemed more irate than before. frowning iruka dared to ask.  
"why are you so upset? was it because i didn’t visit the last couple weeks?"  
the man turned his face away, iruka smiled.  
"i was being interrogated and wasn’t allowed to leave, im sorry i missed our regular meeting"  
the man shrugged once more before stating in a cold tone.  
"they should have just killed you when wave attacked. you belong with them you know. how you’ve lived this long i’ll never understand."  
iruka's eyes widened at that.  
"you don’t mean that, your just upset that-"  
the man leaned forward a crossed the table they were seated at and said in a dead serious voice.  
"you belong with them, you should have died when i tried to take the scroll from you and that damn brat."  
iruka abruptly stood, turning away so as to not show the hurt on his face at mizuki's outburst.  
"im sorry you feel that way"  
iruka let the guard know he was ready to leave and was escorted out where he collected his weapons and headed back to the apartment. the chunin had a hard time focusing where he was going and ran into multiple people along the way before apologizing to them all and continuing on his way. he tried to shake the growing fog around his head, but it just wouldn’t dissipate. mizuki’s words spinning round and round in his head, not so unlike those of his sensei’s. no matter who uttered them they were cruel, but hearing it from someone who he had at one time been so close to. so intimate with, iruka shook his head once more. before climbing the stairs to the apartment, iruka swayed a little and had to grab onto the railing for support. leaning heavily against the front door to the apartment, he tried unsuccessfully to unlock it twice before finally getting the deadbolt to turn. turning the handle iruka couldn’t stop himself from falling to the floor in the doorway. he was out cold before his body hit the ground. his mind only bringing one thing to the forefront of his consciousness.  
‘how could i ever love him?’

*********

kakashi had a rather relaxing day with mayonaka, he'd taken her out for some training and had managed to get her to learn a couple commands that he hoped to impress iruka with. he knew the chunin would get excited at the prospect of his ninken knowing how to do a few tricks, even if they weren’t fighting related. they'd returned to the apartment later in the afternoon and had relaxed for quite some time, just sitting in each others company while kakashi read. it was a little after 3 when he heard a weird thud at the front door, twisting around he listened carefully, but nothing else happened. relaxing back into his chair kakashi turned back around when he heard a weird scraping sound coming from the front door, it happened twice in succession. mayonaka had gotten to her feet at the first noise and stood staring towards the door. when the noises continued she edged forward. getting up he started to make his way to the front door, mayonaka following behind him, when he heard the lock suddenly disengage. eyebrows raised the jounin wondered what iruka was doing home so early, glancing to the clock proved that the man should have had at least another three hours on the job, before he could twist all the way around and ask iruka what he was doing home so early, the jounin watched with wide eyes as iruka's body fell through the open door and crashed to the floor in a heap.  
"iruka!"  
racing over to the chunin kakashi tried to figure out what was wrong with the man, he wasn’t bleeding that he could tell, putting his hands under the mans neck found a fast pulse, but nothing overly concerning. the man was breathing albeit a little fast, but breathing. there seemed to be no reason for the ninja to be unconscious. looking out the door he hoped to find a reason for the man's current state, but there was nothing. no one was outside. carefully he gathered up the limp man and brought him over to the couch before running back to close the front door and put the lock back in place.  
coming back to the chunin's place he had to move mayonaka out of the way. kneeling beside the man he tried to shake iruka awake, but the man showed no signs of waking. reaching to undo the man's vest the jounin wondered if there was hidden injury, but removing the heavy vest revealed nothing. shaking his head, kakashi lifted his hitae to reveal the sharingan. looking the man over he could see no effects from a genjitsu on the man. quickly putting his hitae back in place he frowned. something had happened to iruka and he was going to figure out what. standing up he walked over to his phone and decided to call ibiki to find out what had been going on with the man while he was at work. he knew he couldn’t bring himself to actually leave the man to get the information so he was forced to use a less personal way to get the information.  
it took close to five minutes before he was transferred to the right person who could find ibiki and another five for the actual man come growling on the phone.  
"who is this!"  
"its kakashi, what happened to iruka?"  
there was a brief pause before the interrogations expert said.  
"kakashi? what do you mean what happened to him? i let him go home early two hours ago"  
puzzled kakashi revealed that the man had just stumbled through the door unconscious and refused to wake. kakashi could hear the confusion in the man’s voice as he said.  
"that’s impossible, he was completely fine when i let him go, he must have stopped somewhere on his way to your apartment"  
kakashi thanked the man and said he would keep him posted on iruka's condition in case he couldn’t come in tomorrow. ibiki was about to hang up when the torture exper stated.  
"let me make a quick phone call, i have a hunch on something"  
kakashi frowned but said he'd wait for ibiki to call him back. it was only ten minutes before the phone rang and kakashi caught it on the first ring.  
"ibiki?"  
"seems iruka paid a visit to mizuki today"  
kakashi glanced back at the chunin, frowning as he stared at the man on his couch. why would he go there?  
"why would he visit that piece of shit?"  
he heard his boss snort before the man stated.  
"my guess, somehow today's interview made him think of the man and he decided to go visit him. guards say they don’t know what the two talked about, but that iruka left in a hurry rather suddenly."  
frowning kakashi thanked ibiki for his help, the man on the other end told him to keep him posted and hung up. hanging up the phone the jounin turned to watch the man on his couch.  
"what were you up too?"  
sitting in his chair kakashi watched and waited for iruka to wake up. they had a lot to talk about.

***********

iruka remembered the first time mizuki kissed him, it was hardly professional, they were just horny teenagers who didn’t know what they were doing, but it was exciting, something almost dangerous. it had been sloppy but it still stuck with him.  
he also could remember the first time they had sex, it'd been gentle and loving, both of them speaking of their devotion to one another and how they would never leave one another. in retrospect that was rather foolish, but at the time it had meant the world to him. now he knew better. he’d had to learn the hard way that some people would use pretty words to get what they wanted.  
iruka remembered the first time mizuki raped him, he'd been in too much shock to do anything, he didn’t even remember if he fought back at all after the initial argument. he remembered the tears, the screaming and the pain. the look of pleasure on his lovers face as he took everything he wanted from iruka’s body and gave nothing but agony in return.  
he could remember the first time he lied about his injuries to the third, how the man had just said to be more careful. he never told the man how he had been raped the night before and the ligature marks on his body were from his lover and not the enemy ninja.  
iruka could still feel the pain of the windmill shuriken embedding itself into his back, the tearing sensation as his muscle was ripped into by the blade as mizuki laughed. the pain of not only knowing his lover was trying to kill him, but also a child.  
he remembered the day he first visited mizuki in his new home. the man had spit on him and refused to say anything to him. iruka could recall how that had hurt so much more than the still healing wound on his back.  
he could still see the hate in mizuki's eyes every time the man looked at him. the anger in his voice as he told him to just die. he remembered the first time mizuki told him the truth about their ‘relationship’.  
"you were nothing to me, just a fuck toy for my amusement, you couldn’t even do that right though could you. no wonder every one leaves you."  
iruka could still feel the pain of the vipers kiss as he tried to do what he felt was what everyone wanted. to die, the pain lacing up his arm as the venom spread throughout his body arching as if in eternal pleasure, only to continue to sporadically jerk as his muscles tensed and his eyes rolled up into his skull.  
iruka missed it, this darkness he was surrounded in. this peaceful slumber, there was no pain, no angry words, no threats, no right or wrong just existence at its core. he wished he could stay here forever. yet like all the times before, that peace never lasted. his body wouldn’t give in so easily to death and whatever had brought him to this place of reflection once more was pulling him back into the world of the living.

**********

kakashi's eye widened when he saw movement, putting down his book he watched carefully as iruka's face scrunched up and the chunin rolled more onto his side before bringing a hand up to rub his head. sighing in relief kakashi stood and approached the still waking man. kneeling beside him the jounin was careful to place his hand on the man's shoulder, he felt the man tense, but otherwise iruka didn’t react to his presence. the chunin’s eyes remained closed.  
"iruka?"  
the jounin prompted cautiously, at first there was no sign that the man had heard him, but then the man inhaled deeply before allowing his eyes to squint open. giving the man a gentle smile, kakashi asked.  
"hey there, how are you feeling"  
iruka groaned, his hand rubbing his eyes to clear his vision. it took a moment for the chunin to recall what all had happened. he didn’t remember actually getting into the apartment, kakashi must have found him outside then. sighing iruka couldn’t believe his luck. his eyes slid shut as he chastised himself.  
"you still with me?"  
came the concerned tone from the man knelt down beside him, iruka nodded his head before whispering.  
"yeah"  
smiling kakashi was glad that the chunin was at least answering him.  
"good, how do you feel?"  
"sore, but i think that’s from training"  
the chunin allowed his eyes to open and he focused on kakashi again.  
"you brought me in here?"  
"sorta, you made it through the door, but im guessing you were already out cold by then"  
iruka nodded his head, he hadn’t realized he had managed to get the door open at all. before he could try and figure out what was going on around him and try to find a way to brush the whole thing off, kakashi asked the question iruka dreaded the most.  
"what happened?"  
iruka could see the concern in the mans eyes, he knew that kakashi deserved answers especially after he had worried the man, but he just couldn’t bring himself to be honest with himself and with kakashi about what had happened. he just couldn’t say it.  
'im an idiot, i thought they loved me. i thought he loved me.'  
instead he let his eyes trail to the ceiling, kakashi frowned when iruka refused to answer his question. letting his hand fall from the chunin's shoulder he waited, it wasn’t more than a couple minutes before the chunin let his gaze fall back onto kakashi. the one open eye was watching him carefully. sensing that the chunin needed some prompting if they were to get anywhere, kakashi took it upon himself to suggest.  
"iruka something had to have happened"  
"yeah"  
"what?"  
"i don’t want to talk about it"  
iruka turned his head away from kakashi, willing himself not to cry again in front of the man. he couldn’t show how weak he was, not again. sighing kakashi decided to play his cards and see what happened. if the chunin would fess up to everything or if he would have to drag it out of him kicking and screaming.  
"iruka, i called ibiki after i found you"  
that didn’t matter iruka told himself, ibiki didn’t know anything about what happened to him once he left work. seeing no response from the chunin kakashi added.  
"he said he let you go early today"  
all the truth, but it didn’t let kakashi know anything. still nothing, kakashi watched the chunin warily before informing him.  
"i told him how i found you and he made some calls"  
iruka didn’t like the sound of that, why couldn’t ibiki stay out of his business? did he get some kind of pleasure from torturing...right. of course he did. iruka sighed, but listened idly when kakashi spoke up once more.  
"he found out you went to visit mizuki"  
iruka couldn’t help but flinch at that name. he was sure that kakashi had seen it. iruka wasn’t wrong the jounin had seen the chunin flinch at his ex-lovers name. frowning more kakashi asked.  
"what happened between you two?"  
"we talked"  
came the stilted reply from the chunin. kakashi ignored the brisk tone as he was finally getting somewhere.  
"about what?"  
iruka shrugged.  
"just things, wave invading, me missing for a couple weeks, the rumors he had heard around the prison."  
intrigued as to what a rat like mizuki would have to say about everything, kakashi asked.   
"what did he have to say about wave invading?"  
kakashi was curious to know what the traitor would think of the recent attack on konoha. he didn’t put it past someone like mizuki to be rooting for their enemies. iruka took a moment before answering the jounin.  
“not much, i think he was surprised that i hadn’t died in the attack...he knows me well enough, so i think it was just ribbing on his part.”  
kakashi frowned at the chunin who was staring up at his ceiling.   
“and did he comment on the interrogation?”  
kakashi watched as iruka swallowed a bit stiffly before mumbling out.  
"he said that you should have executed me for treason. i don’t think he cared whether or not you found evidence of it...the whole thing was amusing to him."  
kakashi winced, that was harsh even for a rat like mizuki. without prompting iruka informed the jounin.  
"he was mad that i had missed seeing him for so long, so he lashed out at me, its nothing new really"  
shaking his head kakashi spoke up on behalf of the chunin.  
“he had no right to do so, he’s lucky anyone comes to see him at all. you said he had heard rumors? what about?”  
kakashi saw iruka bite his lip, a sure sign that chunin was deep in thought as to how to say what he was thinking about. it also signaled that the chunin was embarrassed by something.  
"iruka?"  
iruka shook his head before saying.  
" i asked him why he cooperated with ibiki, he said he wasn’t about to get tortured on my behalf, i asked him about a fight he had gotten into, the guards had told me about it and he had some bruises on him. he didn’t answer me...instead he said he also heard from the guards that- that you and me were fucking each other and that i deserved to be with them"  
kakashi understood most of what the chunin had said, but the last part had him confused.  
"be with them, who was he talking about?"  
iruka spared a glance from the ceiling to the look at the jounin before his eyes went back up ahead of him.  
"my teammates. he said that i should have died when he attacked me and naruto. he asked why i couldn’t just die"  
kakashi couldn’t believe what he was hearing, how could that sick fuck say such things to someone he claimed to have loved just a few years prior. scowling, though it wasn’t directed towards the chunin in front of him, kakashi said.  
"iruka-"  
the chunin never gave him a chance to talk before cutting the jounin off completely to say.  
"im so stupid"  
kakashi shook his head trying to argue with the upset chunin on his couch.  
"your not stupid, you just have a kind heart"  
iruka laughed at that, bringing his hands up to wipe away the tears that had long since disobeyed him and had flowed freely for the last several minutes. twisting about on the couch a little, iruka looked at kakashi and asked.  
"how was your day?"  
kakashi frowned at the sudden misdirection from their conversation. he wasn’t about to let the chunin just avoid what had happened to him.  
"iruka-"  
iruka ignored the jounin in favor of asking.  
"was mayonaka good for you?"  
"iruka-"  
the chunin glanced back towards the ceiling in a nervous manner as he stumbled to tell the man.  
"we got some useful information today about wave, might not say what we need to know bu-"  
"IRUKA"  
sighing the chunin turned his head to face kakashi, taking a deep breath kakashi spoke as levelly as he could with as angry as he was.  
"your not stupid, he was lashing out because he's frustrated that your free and he isn’t, you have a life to live and he's stuck in that prison cell."  
iruka nodded his head, it was nice of kakashi to say things like this, but he really just couldn’t process them. sensing that the chunin was torn between what he had heard from mizuki and what he had just told him, kakashi instructed the chunin.  
"you shouldn’t go back there anymore"  
iruka shook his head somberly before stating.  
"but i have too"  
frowning kakashi asked.  
“why would you have to go back there?”  
"because, if i don’t he'll get angry, well... more angry. he’s always angry at me"  
snorting kakashi told the chunin in a no nonsense tone of voice.  
"screw him, he chose to go against the village and lost, he's rotting in that cell because he's a traitor to the village and to you. he doesn’t deserve someone like you as a friend or anything else for that matter."  
iruka looked away as he said.  
"you don’t understand, no one understands"  
iruka grew frustrated and ground his curled fists into his closed eyes. he felt kakashi pulling his arms down so he wouldn’t hurt himself.  
"what don’t i understand?"  
kakashi asked sincerely, he wanted to understand iruka, but he couldn’t do that if the man wouldn’t talk to him. the chunin tilted his head to the side after a few moments of collecting himself.  
"i should have saved him, i have to save him."  
kakashi shook his head before informing the chunin.  
"i don’t think you could have iruka saved him, he's too far gone. whatever happens when he gets out of prison...well we’ll deal with that then. he’s not your responsibility."  
iruka continued to cry on the couch, upset by the fact that he could do nothing for his friend and ex-lover who now hated him and wished him dead. iruka barely noticed when kakashi let go of his arms and instead started to just hold him. he let iruka sob into his shoulder and just cling to him as a child would. on any normal day iruka would have been embarrassed by this, but with how today had gone, how he was feeling he just clung all the more tighter to the jounin.  
kakashi waited for the chunin to start to settle down, keeping his hold on him he spoke softly to the chunin in his arms.  
"no more going back there alright?"  
at first he didn’t get a response, about to ask again kakashi smiled when he felt the subtle nod against his shoulder. he didn’t know if he could trust iruka not to go back, but at the very least he could attempt to persuade him not to. they sat there for quite a while, kakashi just holding onto the chunin and letting iruka settle himself. when he figured that iruka had calmed enough he pulled back. iruka wiped at his face furiously, embarrassed by everything that had happened. kakashi didn’t pay any attention to the chunin's attempts to wipe away the evidence of his turmoil. instead of focusing on that, he questioned the man.  
"what do you want for dinner?"  
iruka shook his head, he didn’t really care what he ate at the moment, he was still feeling detached. nodding his head kakashi stood up and started for the kitchen before thinking better of it. making a small bite in his finger, he summoned pakkun. the little pug appeared in a puff of smoke and was about to bark about what kakashi needed now, when his nose registered the turmoil around him. twisting around the pug's ears drooped at the sight of the cheerful man that had been staying with kakashi. the man was laying on the couch trying to stop himself from crying. turning back around the ninken nodded to kakashi. smiling to his ninken, he made his way to the kitchen to make something to eat for the both of them.  
trotting over to the chunin, the pug sat on the floor and watched the distraught man silently before turning to look at mayonaka. the dog gave a little whine, to which the pug let out a little bark. iruka looked through his blurry vision to see that kakashi had summoned pakkun. smiling down at the dog he couldn’t make the smile last. laying on his side he watched the two dogs interact. it was rather interesting to see the two ninken ‘talk’ to each other. after a few ‘words’ had been passed back and forth between the two ninken, pakkun turned and informed iruka.  
"she doesn’t like you being sad"  
looking to pakkun iruka smiled.  
"she's a good girl"  
pakkun nodded his head, he knew that the other ninken was a good fit for the man in front of him. he had known from the very beginning when he first pitched the idea to kakashi. they could hear kakashi moving around in the kitchen, but iruka didn’t seem to care, he just continued to watch the two ninken in front of him as he lay docilely on the couch. it seemed that after he had gotten over seeing the chunin distressed, pakkun’s normal behavior came back to the forefront of his mind. the ninken tilted his head at iruka before stating rather bluntly.  
" you smell funny"  
looking to the pug iruka asked what he meant.  
"you smell like another man"  
"i was at work today, might be ibiki-"  
the pug shook his head, he knew what ibiki smelled like. he’d gone with kakashi numerous times to see the man, this was different.  
“no, not him. someone else.”  
iruka frowned a moment before he shrugged and said.  
"oh ok, umm we interrogated someone from wave today, could it have been him?"  
the pug shook his head again, he remembered this smell from the past, it was someone who he'd come across in the village before. someone who had to live within the village for him to recognize them so readily. telling iruka that pakkun saw the teachers eyes widen.  
"mizuki"  
the pug didn’t know the name of the man, but could guess that the chunin was probably right by his change in demeanor.  
"he made you sad?"  
iruka could only nod to the dog, he wasn’t sure if pakkun could truly understand what had gone on between him and mizuki and wasn’t about to tell him. instead he sumarized for the ninken what had happened.  
"he said some hurtful things"  
"why?"  
"he hates me"  
the ninken tilted his head once more before asking.  
"did you hurt him?"  
iruka nodded his head before saying.  
"yeah, i chose the village over him-he's incarcerated right now"  
ah that explained things. the man he was smelling was a bad man if he was being housed by konoha's prison facility. seeing the hurt in the chunin’s eyes, pakkun took it upon himself to inform the man.  
"if he's in there, he deserves it"  
iruka shook his head at the pug before saying.  
"its my fault he's there"  
"how so?"  
"i didn’t try hard enough to save him"  
staring at the distraught man a moment, pakkun told the chunin something he was sure would be hard to hear.  
"some don’t want to be saved"  
iruka nodded his head. that much was true of many people. but he had always thought that if he had only done something differently he could have changed mizuki's fate. pakkun was about to ask something else when kakashi entered with a plate in each of his hands. iruka sat up and took one of the plates before thanking him. kakashi smiled to the ninja but took his normal seat in his chair. they ate in silence. in the end kakashi wasn’t surprised when iruka didn’t eat much. the chunin just moved his food around his plate periodically. in the end iruka ended up splitting it between pakkun and mayonaka much to the latter’s approval. smiling down at the happy dogs, he glanced back up to kakashi before saying.  
"i think im going to head to bed, i have work in the morning"  
"you could call in"  
the jounin suggested, iruka smiled but shook his head. he didn’t want any special treatment especially from someone like ibiki.  
"no, they need my help. were not doing any interrogations so mayonaka can come to work with me tomorrow"  
that made kakashi feel a little better about the chunin going to work. he watched as iruka got up and started for the hallway before calling out a thank you and a good night to the jounin. kakashi wasn’t surprised when mayonaka scarfed down the rest of her food and trailed after the ninja. sighing kakashi put his head in his hand as he sat in his chair. a moment later pakkun came to sit before him and asked.  
"so what happened?"  
"he visited an old friend, an old lover today. he was abusive to iruka in more than one way. he decided to let iruka know how he truly felt about him today"  
pakkun nodded, he understood perfectly how desperate men could say things to hurt someone else to make themselves feel better.  
"is he a threat?"  
kakashi frowned before shaking his head.  
"not for a while longer, so long as i can keep iruka from visiting him again that is."  
"do you think he would go back after today?"  
kakashi sighed before stating.  
"he let the man abuse him for over two years"  
"ah"  
the dogs ears drooped upon hearing the chunins unfortunate past.  
"all i can do is do my best though, we were making so much progress though"  
pakkun trotted up to kakashi before standing on his back two legs and leaning against kakashi's knees.  
"at least he has you now"  
smiling kakashi ruffled the dogs ears.  
"thanks"  
"no problem boss"

***********

kakashi ended up checking on the chunin before going to bed like every night the only difference being that pakkun was with him. a small yip from mayonaka and a nod from pakkun allowed kakashi to climb into his own bed. the tiny pug joining him.  
"she says he was out like a light"  
"from stress most likely"  
the ninken nodded his head before stating.  
"most likely, she’ll keep a good eye on him though."  
sighing kakashi reached out and scratched one of the ninken's ears before letting his hand drop.  
"wake me if he gets up"  
"will do boss"


	21. what's a dog bite between friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka has to deal with the fallout of his visit with mizuki. kakashi visits with mizuki. kakashi gets reprimanded for visiting mizuki by the hokage and learns that there's been a change of plans as far as iruka's test is concerned. overall its a very interesting day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day. so this chapter was a lot of fun to write. mostly because i like portraying kakashi as the mischevious person he is. plus writing iruka's reactions to what ever kakashi gets up to is fun. 
> 
> thanks again for all the comments and kudos. still quite a journey ahead of us before the story ends. hope you all enjoy how things are going and stay tuned for more.

iruka may have woken up numerous times throughout the night due to nightmares of his time with mizuki, but he never even sat up in bed. instead he just laid there quietly, not wanting to take the chance of disturbing kakashi or the dog next to him.  
seeing the sun come through the window, the chunin got up to go take a shower before heading to work. he wasn’t overly surprised when mayonaka didn’t stay in the room to wait for him, but he still didn’t allow her into the bathroom. pakkun was awake as soon as the man had moved out of bed, but he just silently watched the man as he headed down the hallway and closed his eyes again when the water from the shower turned on. his eyes opened again when mayonaka jumped onto kakashi's bed and curled up. kakashi woke up from the movement and reached down to pet her.  
"he in the shower i take it"  
"yep"  
letting out a breath of air, kakashi listened to the sounds of the water running. it wasn’t long before the water turned off and mayonaka left them to stand in front of the bathroom door to await iruka’s return. looking down to pakkun kakashi asked.  
"anything during the night"  
"not that i could see, but i can go ask her"  
the jounin watched as pakkun jumped down and went around the corner to talk with mayonaka. he was only gone a minute at most before scampering back into kakashi's bedroom and hopping back onto the bed.  
"she says he woke up numerous times last night but never bothered to get up"  
sighing kakashi didn’t know whether to be relieved that iruka had just stayed in bed, or worried that iruka hadn’t slept. he heard the door open and iruka return to his bedroom to put on his gear. it wasn’t long before the front door opened and closed signaling the chunin's departure for work. looking down to the ninken at his side kakashi asked in a thoughtful tone.  
"how would you like to bite someone today?"  
the pug smiled, barring his teeth.  
"are we visiting a certain someone"  
kakashi tilted his head a bit with a small smile on his face.  
"we just might happen to be in that part of town today"  
the pug nodded and lounged on the bed as his boss got ready. he had no problem tearing a couple holes into the asshole who had abused the kind man he had only met a handful of times. it was plain to see by the ninken that the man was a kind person and didn’t even begin to deserve whatever treatment the bastard had seen fit to put on the chunin. pakkun trusted his boss’s perceptions of people and if kakashi said the man was bad news, he was.

***********

it was a rather slow day at work, until ibiki paid him a visit just after lunchtime, at first iruka didn’t notice the man who was leaning against the door frame. but a small growl from mayonaka caught his attention. looking up to his boss he couldn’t hold back the wince. he knew this wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation.  
"iruka"  
"ibiki"  
the man kicked off of the door frame and came to stand on the opposite side of iruka’s desk. there was a lengthy unnerving pause before ibiki finally brought up the elephant in the room.  
"so you visited him"  
"yes"  
ibiki shook his head.  
"you shouldn’t have done that"  
"so i've been told"  
came the dry response. frowning at the chunin, ibiki took his time to say.  
"you wont do that again understood"  
"visit him?"  
iruka asked suddenly. ibiki nodded his head with a firm expression on his face.  
"yes"  
rolling his eyes iruka challenged the man’s ‘order’.  
"and why should i take orders from you? your not the hokage, your only my boss and my personal life is not your concern"  
iruka didn’t know where he got the balls to speak back to the man in front of him like that. he was practically shaking before the man, but his usual temper had flared and iruka found himself talking back to the intimidating man with little regard to the consequences. ibiki glared back at the chunin a moment before a wry grin split his scarred face.  
"i may not be the hokage, but i do hold sway in this village. i would have no problem recommending you to a nice institution with a lovely view of the mountain"  
iruka knew what ibiki was talking about, the mental institution. snorting iruka snapped back.  
"i hear the view is spectacular"  
ibiki frowned at the chunin's sharp retort. leaning against the desk, pushing himself into the chunin’s space ibiki growled out.  
"you've caused enough trouble, your stirring enough dust up into the air and im tired of being in the middle of it. so listen up, you will not go and see that ingrate again. cause if i hear about it, i will find a way to make your life a living hell and seeing as im your boss that would be pretty damn easy for me."  
iruka just stared at the man for a moment, before turning his head away so as to not have to look at the man. his fists were clenched at his sides and mayonaka was still growling at the man who had upset her master.  
"do i make myself clear?"  
ibiki asked in a self satisfied way. iruka didn’t respond right away, instead he chose to count to ten and take a deep breath.  
"with all due respect ibiki-"  
iruka turned to stare at the man frowning at him  
"you can bite me"  
retaking his seat, iruka began to read the next line of inscription he needed to translate. ignoring the form looming over his desk as if the lengthy conversation hadn’t just transpired. he vaguely heard the footsteps of the man as he headed towards the door. smiling to himself iruka was quite proud of himself. until he heard ibiki’s last remark.  
"this is your only warning, see him again and i will take action to make sure incidents like yesterday don’t happen again. i think your already aware that i am more than capable of ensuring compliance to my rules."  
iruka’s smile melted off of his face. he heard ibiki shut the door behind him and laid his head into his arms. why couldn’t that man just leave him alone?

*********

kakashi hummed to himself a rather happy tune, sure he'd been banned from entering the facility without another person to stand guard against him harming the inmates, but it was worth it. pakkun trotted happily beside him.  
"that was fun boss"  
"yes it was"  
the two continued down the street only to stop when an anbu appeared in front of him. kakashi smiled at his fellow anbu and bowed his head in respect.  
"anbu-san"  
"hatake-hokage wishes to see you, she is not amused"  
smiling he bowed to his comrade before disappearing in a puff of smoke. standing before the hokage the jounin allowed her to rant and rave about how it was not alright for him to just waltz into a secure facility with weapons on him and threaten and then maim an inmate of the prison. when she was taking a breather kakashi simply stated.  
"iruka visited him"  
about to go on another ranting tangent, she stopped. the frown already marring her face darkening before stating.  
"he visited him...you mean iruka."  
kakashi nodded. the jounin watched as the hokage sighed and poured herself another cup of sake.  
"and the result"  
"he collapsed, had a breakdown at my apartment"  
she sighed, that’s better than she had anticipated. no longer being yelled at by his hokage, kakashi chose to inform her of what little progress he’d made.  
"i believe i got through to him, i told him not to go back again"  
tsunade nodded her head.  
"that’s good, i wish i had happy news to share with you as well, but at least your here already and i didn’t have to call you in later for it"  
raising a brow kakashi waited for her to continue.  
"the council decided to move up iruka's test up, he's got two weeks"  
eye widening the jounin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. shaking his head kakashi said.  
"that’s not enough time for him to be ready an-"  
"i know"  
the hokage cut him off.  
"then-"  
ignoring kakashi’s attempts to talk, the hokage told the man what she suspected.  
"their doing it on purpose kakashi, they want him to fail"  
glaring rather coldly, tsundade didn’t take the look to heart as she knew it wasn’t directed at her, but rather the invisible council. shaking himself out of his internal rage, kakashi asked.  
"do you know what their going to test him with, whose going to be his examiners, i'd volunteer-"  
tsunade shook her head.  
"they already know of his connection to you and your team, none of you will be allowed to be involved with his test. i have no idea what they will test him with, but im sure they are working away to find some way to make him fail."  
kakashi sighed, he figured he wouldn’t be allowed, but to know his entire team had been blacklisted from helping watch over the chunin. he wondered idly if he could get away with letting pakkun bite them too. leaving that for later the jounin asked.  
"can we at least be present during his testing?"  
arching a brow at the jounin, tsunade asked in a surprised manner.  
"you want to watch?"  
kakashi nodded his head before explaining his reasoning.  
"we may not be able to interfere, but at least we can see what he does well in and what he still needs work in, just in case he's forced to retake it"  
she nodded her head before stating.  
"i can swing that. but you understand your team cannot interact with him at all during the test."  
kakashi nodded, he understood perfectly well, if he or his team said one word to iruka while he was undergoing the test the man would fail.  
"alright then, i suggest you prepare him as much as you can"  
bowing to the hokage he thanked her and left to go take out his frustration on some training dummies. he idly wished that he hadn’t already visited mizuki and gotten banned...he would have been a much better target for his rage.

********

finally coming home, all iruka wanted was a nice cup of hot tea, especially after the last two days he had. his personal chat with ibiki was still fresh in his mind, his talk with mizuki still cut deeply. sighing he opened the door and entered the apartment.  
"im home"  
taking off his sandals he was surprised to find that kakashi must not be home yet, that was rather odd. shrugging his shoulders, he got his ninken her dinner before making himself a nice hot cup of tea. relaxing in his chair iruka hadn’t been home more than twenty minutes when kakashi unlocked the front door and came in.  
"iruka?"  
"in here"  
coming into the living room kakashi smiled at the chunin who appeared to be enjoying his cup of tea very much.  
"how was work"  
iruka sighed before muttering sourly.  
"have i mentioned how much i really don’t like ibiki"  
kakashi smiled, but asked what the man had done to gain iruka’s wrath. deciding to keep their argument to himself, iruka complained about the number of scrolls left on his desk by the scarred man. kakashi just smiled through iruka's tail of woe. when he was done venting the chunin asked.  
"what did you do today?"  
kakashi scratched the back of his head, he wasn’t sure if he should tell the chunin everything he had done today, but he figured if he kept it a secret and the hokage let it slip to the chunin what he had done...  
"i may have visited mizuki"  
iruka's eyes widened as his mouth fell open.  
"you didn’t"  
kakashi shrugged before stating.  
"i wasn’t alone though, pakkun went with me"  
iruka just blinked at the jounin in stunned silence before he groaned and said.  
"you did, i cant believe you, why did you go there?"  
" i wanted to talk to him"  
shaking his head, iruka couldn’t fathom what the two would talk about, he knew mizuki wouldn’t be friendly to anyone least of all the person mizuki thought was fucking him.  
"we had a nice talk"  
looking up the the man iruka frowned. that was the biggest lie he had ever heard. scowling at the jounin, iruka asked.  
"what did you do"  
kakashi shook his head as he held up his hands in a surrender pose.  
"i didn’t do anything"  
realization dawned on iruka a moment later.  
"pakkun"  
kakashi smirked before mentioning.  
"he may have bitten him"  
kakashi wasn’t prepared for the chunin's reaction, instead of getting angrier like he had expected the man too, iruka burst out laughing. kakashi smiled as he watched the chunin laugh at his ex-lovers expense. well that wasn’t a bad reaction now was it? iruka waved a hand at him before asking.  
"you let him bite mizuki?"  
snorting kakashi informed the chuckling chunin.  
"he thinks for himself you know"  
a hard look from the chunin told kakashi that he was caught, iruka reinforced this by saying.  
"yeah but he takes orders from you, so did you order him to bite mizuki?"  
kakashi shook his head.  
"no but i may have let slip that he wasn’t nice to you and that was why you were so upset last night"  
iruka’s eyes widened. kakashi had confided in his ninken about what had upset him and the dog had decided to get revenge for him.  
"i cant believe you"  
shaking his head, iruka let his head fall back against the chair.  
"your not mad are you?"  
came the hesitant tone from the jounin. snorting iruka said.  
"im furious"  
kakashi winced, he had hoped that he could do something to pacify the chunin, to make things right between them before telling him what had happened today.  
"if its any consolation, i've been banned from the facility without an escort and the hokage lectured me for an hour"  
iruka snorted in his chair, tilting his head forward once more to stare at the jounin iruka asked.  
"do you feel better now having saved the damsel in distress"  
iruka’s icy tone made kakashi frown, he didn’t think of iruka as some woman who needed her honor restored or being defended from the big bad villain. he knew iruka could take care of himself, he'd see that in training with him.  
"i was sticking up for friend"  
iruka’s eyes opened wide in surprise, he hadn’t expected that. taking a good look at kakashi, he saw how the man was genuinely concerned for him. now he just felt like an ass. blushing a bit iruka said.  
"thank you, but i wish you hadn’t done that"  
kakashi smiled before waving the chunin off.  
"mah pakkun didn’t do much damage, bull would have, but i couldn’t sneak him past security"  
iruka snorted at the mans sense of humor.  
"im guessing mizuki didn’t take that too well"  
the jounin shook his head.  
"no not too well, might have been the combination of getting bit by a very pissed of ninken, and then being tackled by guards when they thought he was trying to attack me. overall i would say he had a very shitty day"  
iruka smiled at him.  
"i cant believe you did that"  
kakashi shrugged at the chunin, he'd do it again in a heartbeat.  
"there's also one more thing"  
with iruka looking a little irritated at that news, he quickly moved on.  
" it has nothing to do with what i or my ninken did to mizuki. the hokage informed me that the council has decided to move up your testing date"  
sighing in relief upon hearing that the jounin hadn’t done anything else stupid the chunin asked.  
"oh, when is it now?"  
"two weeks"  
iruka just blinked at him, kakashi waited for some kind of reaction, but iruka just kept blinking.  
"umm iruka?"  
"two weeks, from today?"  
"yes"  
kakashi nodded his head and frowned when the chunin bowed his head, looking to his feet. iruka couldn’t believe it. they hated him that much. seeing how crestfallen the man was, kakashi told him.  
"i tried to volunteer to be one of your examiners, but the council knows you've been staying with me and wouldn’t hear of it. they blacklisted my entire team from helping as well."  
figures they wouldn’t even give him an opportunity to know the people who would be kicking his ass.  
"the hokage is letting us tag along though, we can watch everything we just cant interfere"  
iruka looked up at that a stunned expression on his face.  
"so you'll still be there, i just wont see you"  
kakashi smiled and nodded.  
"yes"  
iruka sighed in relief before stating.  
"that’s better than nothing i suppose"  
kakashi smiled, glad to hear that it made the man a little more relaxed about the situation. after a moment iruka dared to ask the man.  
"did you get any dirt on who i'd be facing?"  
kakashi shook his head before stating that he had tried. iruka shrugged his shoulders and thanked him for trying to help.  
"we’ve got two weeks to train you, its not much, but we'll do our best"  
"yeah, i'll see if i cant take the time off from work, or maybe work nights instead of days until the test...that could work"  
kakashi frowned at him and shook his head. seeing the jounin’s response to his words, iruka asked.  
"what?"  
"you cant do both, you'll be exhausted by the time the test comes around, you cant go in on fumes or you'll never make it"  
iruka had to give kakashi a point there. sighing he knew ibiki was not going to like this. as if sensing the problem kakashi asked if he was scared of ibiki's reaction to him wanting time off. sighing iruka finally fessed up to what had happened earlier.  
"we kinda had an argument today-a pretty bad one. i really don’t think hes going to open to me taking time off"  
"what about?"  
the jounin asked curiously.  
"he knew about the whole mizuki thing of course, he was less than pleased to find out i had gone to see him. he let me know in no uncertain terms that he'd make my life a living hell if i ever did something that stupid again"  
kakashi frowned. ibiki sure had a way with people. giving the chunin a reassuring smile kakashi told him.  
"don’t worry about him. we can go talk to tsunade-sama and get her approval, go over his head as it were"  
iruka smiled at the devilish plan to supersede ibiki's power. shaking his head iruka mentioned.  
"i'll just dread going back after the test is done"  
kakashi shrugged before informing him.  
"if you pass you might not have to go back"  
iruka snorted at the jounin.  
"they'd still need my help with the scrolls kakashi, i wouldn’t just abandon that, it could put the whole village at risk"  
"true, but you might be able to work directly under the hokage instead of ibiki"  
iruka blinked before smiling a bit.  
"that would be nice, i'd rather deal with her temper and drunkenness than ibiki any day"  
kakashi smiled at the man, at least he knew his priorities. deciding to move onto happier things kakashi asked how the fruit translations were going. iruka snorted.  
"oh their fabulous, you should have seen the look on ibiki's face when i gave him the translation. he looked at me like i was drunk or had just suffered a head injury. it took me a while to convince the man that i wasn’t messing around with him."  
chuckling kakashi nodded his head.  
"im sure, any idea why wave is using a grocery list to hide their activities?"  
iruka shrugged before going on to say that the two nin's kakashi's team brought in must have been high up enough in rank to cause a stir in wave and warrant the extra coding. kakashi thought about it a moment and asked if iruka could read out loud to him what one of the scrolls said.  
"sure, though i don’t think you'll find it very interesting"  
"mah im thinking more on how they might be scrambling their words. i like a good puzzle"  
iruka smiled before commenting that he'd make sure to get kakashi a copy of one of the translated scrolls for him to play around with while he was battling it out in the forest of death. kakashi shook his head before admitting.  
"i think i'll be more focused on whats going on with you then some scroll of fruit."  
iruka blushed, but tried to cover it by coughing into his hand.  
"yeah well, its probably going to be boring for you guys to watch me during the test. i know it would drive me nuts to not be able to help someone when i was able too."  
"it will be hard for us not to interfere, but we wouldn’t want to see you failed because we meddled. i just hope we can get enough training in to prepare you for whoever is going to be hunting you"  
iruka shrugged his shoulders, he knew that he more than likely wouldn’t pass the exam, the council weren’t going to go easy on him. iruka didn’t know if they were going to play dirty, but he wouldn’t be surprised if they did. at least he would know that he wasn’t entirely alone, even if he couldn’t see, hear, or speak to them. kakashi glanced to the nearby clock and suggested.  
"you should get to bed, we have training in the morning and with the new deadline, were going to have to push you a lot harder than the other day."  
sighing iruka nodded his head and stood up, taking his cup of tea to the kitchen before coming back into the living room and bidding the copy nin goodnight. 

***********

iruka lay in bed for quite a while, for some reason he just couldn’t fall asleep. he knew it probably had to do with the fact that he was still in shock that someone spoke up for him, kakashi had even gone so far as to try and become one of his examiners. he didn’t have to do that, but it gave the chunin a warmth inside to know that his growing friendship with the man seemed to be expanding more than just a mission handed to the copy nin from the hokage. turning onto his side iruka whispered to mayonaka.  
"kakashi really is something isn’t he?"  
the dog opened its eyes and regarded him for a moment before closing them again. smiling at the dog, iruka got as comfortable as he could to try and settle down to sleep.

***********

"time to get up iruka, grab a shower,food and gear and were gone"  
groaning iruka didn’t even bother to look at the clock. he knew it was dreadfully early and muttered his way through his chores the whole time cursing jounin and their inability to sleep in. he vaguely heard kakashi laughing, but ignored the man for the sake of having a hot shower, warm food, and getting the last of his gear together. finally ready to go, iruka secured his sandals and they were out the door.  
walking in the early morning iruka took a deep breath of the early morning air, it was damp with the rainfall they had gotten overnight and he knew that the ground would be moist from it. he wondered idly if he could use that to his advantage while training or if it would slow him down. turning to his companion he couldn’t help but ask.  
"so whats on the agenda today?"  
kakashi was reading and walking and although iruka despised the porn, he was somehow getting used to its presence when around kakashi. without looking up kakashi replied.  
"well were going to be practicing the three cores of jutsu's again, might throw in some weapons training while were at it, i know you can aim well enough, but sometimes making trick shots can give you the upper hand in a battle."  
iruka nodded as they continued down the street. it wasn’t long before they came to the beginning of the anbu training field. like always kakashi had to drop the protective barrier to let them in. making there way down the well worn path iruka waved when he saw kakashi's teammates. they smiled back to him.  
"good morning iruka, are you ready for more training?"  
nodding his head, iruka told them he was trying to think up of new ways to piss off genma last night. said man just frowned at him, while raidou laughed at his lovers expense. it was kakashi that pulled them to focus.  
"so we have a bit of news"  
oh yeah, kakashi's team didn’t know about the new date for his exam, in a way iruka was glad he was around to see their reactions.  
"oh? what news?"  
"the council has decided to move up the date for his exam"  
the anbu just shrugged, it happened all the time, a slot would open up because people constantly dropped out when they heard the horror stories about it. it was iruka who continued.  
"so yeah, we have two weeks"  
they just stared at him for a moment before bursting out laughing. iruka just smiled, he figured they wouldn’t believe him, but he just smiled to kakashi and the nin took over.  
"he's being serious"  
that stopped the laughter dead in its tracks. the anbu just looked between the two before kurenai spoke up.  
"but why so soon? that’s hardly anytime to prepare"  
kakashi shrugged before stating that he never got an official reason. iruka held his tongue even though he wanted to tell them it was because they found out it was him taking it. they would come around eventually and see things for what they really were.  
"two weeks, are they friggin nuts"  
genma barked out, his senbon nearly falling out of his mouth. sensing the discord among the anbu, iruka tried to placate them.  
"its alright guys, at least they didn’t bar me from taking it right?"  
the anbu just frowned at him, iruka sighed, they really didn’t understand how much the council hated him. instead of focusing on that, iruka asked.  
"so whose going to train me first today?"  
there was a long silence while the anbu just continued to process what they had heard. two weeks to train iruka and get him ready to survive a three day exam against high level ninja.  
"guys?"  
snapping out of their reverie, it was raidou who stood up and motioned for the chunin to walk into the center of the field. iruka did as told and prepared to have his ass handed to him again in taijitsu.


	22. preparing for the exam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka continues his training with kakashi and his team. trying his hardest to prepare for the jounin exam he has to pass. the hardest part for the chunin is wading through the memories of his past when trapped inside a genjitsu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day. training with the team mwahahahhaha. i love things like this, mostly because i can be very sarcastic with iruka when the opportunity presents itself. plus it lets me play with other characters. i really like playing with genma, somehow he just seems the sort to be a brat. 
> 
> hope you enjoy this mornings chapter and i'll be back later to post another.

sitting among his teammates, kakashi was about to continue reading his book when asuma asked.  
"did the hokage really not say why they moved up his test?"  
tucking his book into his vest, he glanced over to where iruka was being once more leveled onto the ground by raidou. smirking at the sight, he offhandedly told asuma.  
"she just said that the council was doing it on purpose because they wanted to see him fail"  
"that’s not right"  
kakashi nodded, it wasn’t right, but they couldn’t go against the council any more than the hokage could argue the unfairness of it all. they had too much power over the village for them to have a real chance of them being able to argue against the order. besides no one would speak up on the behalf of a chunin being forced to take the test early, they wouldn’t see it for what it was, an obvious mistreatment of the system to fail someone who would guard konoha with his life. sighing kakashi came out of his wanderings to wince as he watched iruka get thrown into a tree.  
"well at least raidou is taking it seriously"  
they winced as the chunin fell again to their teammates abilities.  
"maybe a little too seriously"  
kakashi shook his head before reminding the others.  
"we cant baby him, we only have so much time before he's going to be going against people who will hurt him, they might not go for the kill like an enemy would, but people have still died during the exam"  
the group nodded, it was rare, but it had happened before. another crash resounded in the field as iruka was slammed harshly into the ground. kakashi waited only a few more minutes before stating.  
"he went to see mizuki"  
four heads swiveled instantly to look at him with wide eyes. they all understood what the man had done to the chunin.  
"why?"  
kakashi shrugged his shoulders.  
"doesn’t really matter, i don’t think he'll go back after this time. he broke down because of it."  
"how badly?"  
realizing what they were asking kakashi soothed their frayed nerves.  
"he didn’t hurt himself, other than collapsing due to stress. when he woke up he just broke down. we talked and i think it might be starting to sink in that mizuki is never going to change. the things he said to iruka-he was trying to cause the most damage he could while still in chains"  
asuma knocked the ashes from his cigarette and frowned at the news.  
"is he doing any better since then?"  
nodding his head, kakashi couldn’t help but smirk a bit as he told the others.  
"apparently ibiki threatened him, not the best solution to the problem, but it helped reinforce that he shouldn’t go back oh and that he really doesn’t like ibiki. other than that he's been doing fine."  
they smiled a little, they were used to ibiki threatening people. ibiki really didn’t know how else to interact with people. they turned their heads as a large thud resounded, it was only iruka getting thrown again so they returned their attention to kakashi.  
"i paid mizuki a visit"  
genma was smiling quite evilly as he asked.  
"he still alive?"  
snorting kakashi replied.  
"of course, like i would get thrown in there with those ingrates just for getting rid of that cockroach. though i might have been banned without a chaperon"  
the group laughed and asked what he had done to which kakashi explained that although he thoroughly threatened the man, it was pakkun who made sure the words were driven home with a well placed bite to the mans privates. they roared in laughter. hearing a shout of excitement they turned to see raidou getting off the ground, the next kick he sent the chunin's way stopped the man's cheering abruptly as it threw iruka back to the ground. shaking their heads they couldn’t help but smile at the chunin's antics. leave it to iruka to try and celebrate from a single blow getting his opponent down.  
"he's like a little kid"  
nodding his head kakashi told them.  
"let him have his fun, he hasn’t been able to touch raidou yet, so he must be feeling proud of himself, even if he just got thrown on his ass again"  
genma knew first hand how tough his lover was and didn’t doubt that iruka deserved to have a moment of celebration. he just hoped that he wouldn’t make any costly mistakes when the test came around. it was kurenai who spoke up next, warning the others.  
"im going to try looking for another memory to use, im hoping that he'll realize its just a memory and that he can escape it, but we'll have to wait and see"  
the others nodded, they knew that iruka had the most trouble with genjitsu simply because it used his past against him. it was kakashi who asked.  
"do you think you’ll find one about mizuki?"  
kurenai pursed her lips a bit before mentioning.  
"i thought about using one with him, but with iruka having visited him just a couple days ago and his reaction, it might be too soon. i can just as easily find something less...traumatic."  
kakashi shook his head to the kunoichi and reiterated that they couldn’t afford to go easy on him, they were trying to get iruka through the jounin exam after all and going easy on him now would just make the exam that much harder for iruka when he was seemingly alone in a forest full of enemies. kurenai nodded before returning her gaze to the taijitsu match in front of them.  
"still, i don’t like hurting him"  
"none of us do"  
asuma told the truth of the matter, they'd come to like the spunky teacher and were hoping that he'd continue to improve not only in his ninja skills but in his ability to overcome his past.  
it seemed the match was over because raidou and a limping iruka came back to their circle. the chunin collapsed into the damp grass, sighing once he was seated. they chuckled a little at the chunin’s obvious relief to be off his sore body.  
"we saw you get a hit on raidou"  
iruka smiled, one of his rare true smiles.  
"yeah, then he handed me my ass again, practically made me eat my own foot"  
the group laughed at the chunin's remark. they let iruka catch his breath a minute before genma said he'd run the man through his paces in ninjitsu. the group watched them walk over towards the beginning of the forest and weren’t surprised when iruka darted for the cover of the treeline. they could hear genma cursing at the chunin already as he ran to catch up with the chunin.  
laughing, the group filled raidou in on everything they had been talking about, he didn’t like what he heard, but knew just like his teammates that there was almost nothing they could do about the situation besides prepare the man as much as possible. the ground suddenly shook and a large plume of dust came over the tree's in the distance.  
"think that was one of iruka's traps?"  
asuma asked as they watched the dust plume in the air. kakashi shrugged.  
"might be, he's used a couple earth jutsu's before"  
they all nodded as they watched the dust settle back into the forest. it wasn’t too much longer before they saw an explosion, more than likely from a tag. kakashi just shook his head at the mans antics. iruka did love his traps.  
"think he'll be able to catch the examiners off guard with his traps?"  
"its possible, not many people focus on those these days."  
they watched as a couple trees a few rows back split apart from one another before crashing into the forest below. they could tell that the fight was heading back towards them because they began to hear the sounds of metal on metal. weapons clashing against each other as they fought and ran, throwing as they dodged one another. the entire group however jolted when they heard a startled scream. looking to one another they began to worry.  
"was that genma or iruka?"  
raidou shook his head,he knew his lovers voice, but screaming other than when he had the man crying out in pleasure was completely different. that was a scream of pain. the silence was deafening as the listened for any more movement in the forest, finally they saw two figures coming through the forest, they all sighed in relief, if they were walking under their own power than chances are it wasn’t something dangerous. then they heard the bickering.  
"would you let it go"  
"but i-"  
"for the last time, im not angry"  
"but your arm-"  
"will be fine"  
finally the two figures came through the tree's and an anxious looking iruka was walking besides genma who was holding his left arm to his chest. they could tell genma was trying to alleviate the chunin's concern about whatever had happened. raidou stood and met them halfway. the taller man ignored iruka's continued attempts to apologize and instead focused on genma and his apparently dislocated arm. shaking his head raidou tsk'd his lover which got him an icy glare. returning to the group kakashi pulled iruka away from the two and forced him to sit down. raidou looked his lover over before quickly calling out.  
"hey asuma wanna help me with this"  
the smoking anbu nodded his head and got up to go around to the other side of genma, looking at the dislocation they nodded before asuma braced the man's shoulder and raidou shoved the limp arm back into place. there was a loud pop before genma who had been gritting his teeth sighed.  
"oh that’s much better"  
coming to sit down they saw kakashi trying to calm down iruka who looked like he was going to be sick after witnessing their version of first aid. genma leaned against raidou, moving his shoulder in circles to help with the flow of blood and chakra.  
"iruka he's fine"  
the chunin shook his head before pointing at genma.  
"but-he, your not supposed to do that"  
the group laughed which only seemed to confuse the chunin. finally it was kakashi who explained.  
"if we waited to get treated while out in the field, we would be dead ten times over, sometimes you just have to make due with field kits and your own knowledge. we've set bones, stitched each other up, put shoulders and knees back into place. it happens"  
iruka just looked greener from the mans speech. snorting genma told the nervous chunin.  
"im fine iruka, you did what the challenge called for, you evaded and injured me without allowing yourself to be caught or injured yourself."  
iruka just nodded at genma, but they could all read the emotion on the mans face. he was still feeling ashamed for having hurt genma. deciding to distract him, kurenai pulled out a scroll and summoned the basket of food she had prepared for their lunch. that did the trick, iruka was just staring at the basket that had been summoned and at kurenai in a befuddled way.  
"what?"  
iruka glanced to the discarded scroll before commenting.  
"i've never used a scroll for anything other than weapons"  
she smiled before stating that they had a lot of uses. nodding he excepted the bento box from her, thanking her in the process. the men took their meals and dove in with gusto, they were used to kurenai's cooking and iruka soon caught on. she was a great cook. they finished their meal with iruka only apologizing two more times to the annoyance of genma and the amusement of the rest of them. clearing away the remnants of food, asuma stood up and stretched. pulling out his blades he motioned for iruka to go get ready. they saw the trepidation in the mans eyes, as he did as he was told.  
"think he's going to hold back?"  
genma whispered as they watched the pair head into the field. kakashi just nodded his head, iruka was a gentle person, most likely because of the trauma he’d endured and his attempts to be so drastically different from his sensei. sure he could be deadly if he wanted too, but that just wasn’t him. the group talked back and forth as they watched iruka narrowly avoid asuma’s blades as they danced around the field. iruka seemed to understand that going for the forest was off limits and didn’t try to escape to the brush this time, instead he just danced around the stronger man and his chakra blades. it was a rather boring match, iruka just skirting by the hairs of his head to avoid the blades at all cost without attempting to hit the man back.  
they could tell that asuma was growing frustrated with iruka’s lack of involvement. it wasn’t until asuma disappeared only to reappear behind iruka that the man reacted purely on instinct. in the next moment they were quite shocked as asuma stumbled backwards, iruka's head having nearly broken the man's nose when he headbutted him. pulling away from asuma, iruka used his speed to his advantage and was able to disarm one of asuma's hands, taking the blade with him. standing apart, iruka smiled as he showed the stolen blade to asuma who was rubbing his face. letting his hand fall from his face asuma smirked at the cocky chunin.  
"go ahead and try and use it"  
frowning iruka looked down at the blade in confusion before returning his attention to asuma, the man charged his blade with chakra to show what he wanted iruka to try and do. iruka knew the basics behind it, you just let your chakra flow outwards and focused it on an object. doing just that iruka yelped and dropped the blade when it somehow managed to cut his hand open. asuma laughed at the chunin before walking over to collect the blade from the ground. iruka pouted at the man as he winced as the blood dripped from the open cut in his palm.  
"how'd you do that?"  
"my little secret"  
asuma taunted, pouting some more the chunin followed asuma back to the group who were smiling at them, they had seen asuma’s little dare to the chunin and had all known what was going to happen. it was kurenai who leaned forward to help iruka bandage the hand after cleaning it with some bottled water. the man hissed but otherwise didn’t react as she finished tending to it.  
"good headbutt though"  
asuma commented, iruka smiled at his teacher before commenting.  
"your face is really hard"  
rubbing the back of his head got him a couple laughs from the group. sitting back kurenai waited for iruka to settle a bit before asking him if he was ready to begin their lesson. the chunin smiled at her and told her to have at it. smiling she got comfortable and activated the genjitsu.  
the group watched as iruka's eyes glazed over as he entered whatever world or memory kurenai had cooked up for the chunin.

**********

he was laying in bed, alone for once. it was cold, he was cold. sitting up iruka tried to think what memory this was or if it was something else altogether. it had to be a memory because they were in his old apartment before he had moved. he saw the bathroom door open, the light on inside. sliding out of bed he approached the open door carefully. coming to stand in the doorway he froze for a minute. he could see himself, laying in the bathtub, the water a deep crimson. he remembered this, how after a particularly violent argument with mizuki he had retreated to the bathroom to soak his wounds. he'd let the water grow cold, too cold and had ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. turning around he jolted a bit when he saw mizuki standing there a blade in hand. frowning iruka pulled back. this was where the memory and fantasy began, being able to identify it he pulled himself out of the dream world before anything could happen.

*********

they watched as the pair suddenly blinked, iruka's eyes clearing as he beat the genjitsu that he had been placed under. kurenai smiled to him.  
"good work"  
iruka shrugged before stating  
“i know my memories, i can tell that much...the last bit just jarred me out of watching the replay since mizuki was never there when that happened.”  
kurenai nodded, but didn’t bother to comment on the subject matter of the illusion iruka had been under. the group didn’t know what she had shown him, but apparently even with the use of his ex lover the man had been able to fight through it.  
"lets try another"  
nodding his head iruka waited to fall back into a different reality.

*************

something was dripping, drip.drip.drip. it was really beginning to annoy him. but iruka didn’t want to open his eyes, for some reason he didn’t have the strength too. fighting against the fog clouding his brain, he opened his eyes and froze. turning his head to the side he could see the senbon sticking out of his shoulder. his blood collecting at the tip of the pointed needle to drip to the floor over and over again. that was where the noise was coming from, droplets of his blood splatting one after the other onto the wood floor. looking forward iruka saw him. orochimaru. he was seated in a chair and just staring at him, but it was really more of a glare.   
"decided to wake up i see"  
iruka tried to reach for the senbon in his shoulder, but his body wouldn’t move, looking to his other shoulder he winced at seeing another senbon holding him in place. looking down to his hands he found that they were untied, yet they refused to move. looking to his sensei he pleaded with the man  
"what...what did i i do?"  
the man shook his head in disappointment before telling iruka.  
"you know what you did iruka-i warned you, over and over again i warned you and yet you still don’t listen"  
the man stood from the chair abruptly and violently, causing the chair to tip over and crash to the floor. iruka winced at the sudden noise as much as the fact that his sensei was approaching him. unsure what the man had planned for him, the man quickly apologized in a vain attempt to prevent more harm coming to himself.  
"im sorry sensei"  
orochimaru nodded his head as if he was accepting the apology from his student. iruka felt the cold hand of his sensei raise his chin up to make them look eye to eye with one another.  
"i only do this because i care for you so"  
iruka nodded his head as he agreed with the man.  
"i know"  
orochimaru smiled back at him.  
"good, then explain why iruka, why did you do it again?"  
shaking his head what little bit he could while still being held in the man’s grasp, iruka stammered out.  
"i-i couldn’t help it, they needed my help-they would have died if i didn’t go back for them-"  
his face jerked to the side as his sensei struck him suddenly. letting out a sob iruka waited for more abuse to rain down on him, when nothing happened. he was able to lift his head to face his sensei again. the man was silent a moment before he asked.  
"do you know where we are iruka?"  
looking around iruka couldn’t recognize his surrounding at first and then it dawned on him. the cabin. he started to shake.  
"the old cabin"  
he whispered. the snake sanin nodded his head appreciatively.   
"good. and do you know why were at the cabin?"  
"because i was bad"  
"very good iruka"  
the man pet his students head, trailing his hands through the soft brown locks only to jerk iruka’s head back by his hair violently as he came forward to sneer at his student.  
"we are staying here until you learn your place in this world boy"  
iruka sobbed but was able to nod his head in his sensei's grasp. this seemed to please the man, because he loosened his hold on iruka's hair. a moment later the long fingers were softly stroking the chunin’s face in a soothing manner.  
"good boy, now what do we say when we get home?"  
"training accident"  
came the immediate response. the sanin nodded before asking.  
"and if he doesn’t believe you?"  
"lie"  
iruka said nervously, swallowing back the growing amount of saliva pooling in his mouth. orochimaru leveled a steely glare his way before asking.  
"and if he still doesn’t believe you?"  
looking into the slitted eyes of his sensei, iruka swallowed hard before answering.  
"kill him"  
orochimaru’s smile widened, letting go of iruka’s hair he turned his back on his student before stating.  
"you might just become my little assassin yet"  
iruka lowered his head, watching the small pools of blood below his dangling feet.  
"sensei"  
"yes iruka"  
unable to look at his sensei while he asked this iruka silently prayed that he wouldn’t incur the mans wrath any more today.  
"why-why do you want me to kill him?"  
iruka glanced up through the fringe of his bangs to see his sensei had turned back around and was looking at him with a broad smile a crossed his face. the man crooned to his student.  
"because only you can, only a child could get close enough to that old fool for him to let his guard down. with your kekkai genkai, not even his anbu guard could stop you"  
iruka nodded his head before stopping the motion to stare at the small pools of blood below him. glancing to the senbon sticking out of him iruka watched fascinated as a single drop fell from the end of the weapon embedded in him to fall and join the pool below. iruka was fascinated by the pools of blood below his dangling feet. he was starting to feel a little dizzy, but contributed that to the head wound he could fee on the back of his head. finding what little strength he had, iruka spoke up knowing it might be the last time he could. there was no telling if his sensei intended to kill him that day or not and if he did, then at least iruka would be able to say what he needed too.  
"i cant-i cant do that for you sensei"  
he screamed as a senbon pierced his thigh. his hair was yanked back a moment later and twin slitted irises glared back at him, the snake sanin hissed out.  
"you will do it iruka"  
shaking his head iruka sobbed, he couldn’t do it, he'd do anything for his sensei, anything he asked, but not this.  
"i cant sensei"  
another senbon embedded itself in the opposite thigh. crying out iruka panted as the pain registered to his brain.   
"please sensei, please don’t make me do it"  
he didn’t have to look up to know that his sensei in front of his face was gglaringat him coldly. he could sense his presence almost anywhere now.  
"please sensei"  
iruka whispered, he cried out as his hair was roughly yanked back again tangled around the man’s long fingers. his sensei hissed at him.  
"you will kill him or i will kill you and leave your rotting corpse on his doorstep as a gift"  
iruka sobbed, shaking his head as much as he could back and forth while still in the man's firm grasp.  
"do not challenge me boy, you wont win"  
orochimaru let iruka’s face drop before storming out of the small building, leaving his student to hang from the wall by his injured shoulders and continue to bleed as sobs racked his small frame.  
"sensei"

iruka watched as the memory played out, he'd almost forgotten this, he could feel his heart clench as the memory played out before him. he knew he should be fighting against kurenai to end the genjitsu, but another part of him wanted to just watch and really look at what had happened that day. he knew that kurenai and the others would have many questions about this memory, if she brought it up to them. reaching up, he felt the tears sliding down his cheeks. he hadn’t even noticed when he had started to cry. turning away as his younger self continued to suffer, he finally gathered his wits about him, he didn’t need to see the rest of it, he knew what his sensei had planned for him when he came back. he'd spare kurenai from having to see that. fighting against the genjitsu he found it hard to push the woman away, she was really fighting to make him stay. giving another try he was almost able to unbalance her claim on his mind, about to try again iruka jumped when the door to the cabin swung open violently. the doorway admitting orochimaru who held a small satchel. getting desperate iruka fought with all his might as he watched his sensei approach the younger version of himself. the small tan satchel coming to lay on an overturned barrel like it was the perfect sized table for the mans evil doing. growing frustrated iruka slammed against the barriers in his mind and winced as he felt the pain from the resistance kurenai was putting up. gritting his teeth iruka prepared for his final attempt, he wouldn’t let kurenai see this. this memory wasn’t for anyone to see. ever. with the last of his strength iruka tore through the barrier of the genjitsu and launched them both back into their bodies.


	23. snake in the grass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka continues his training with kakashi and his team. in the process of undergoing genjitsu training with kurenai the chunin's secrets are slowly being revealed. one of the darkest ones that has yet to see the light of day is about to resurface and kakashi and his team will have to figure out for themselves if they can trust the chunin or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day and oh the angst. the torture...im so mean. but i promise you all the whumpage going iruka's way will be worth it in the end. there is a happy ending to this story, i promise you that. that said...uh yeah things are going to start getting pretty dark. so if your the squeamish type you might want to read until things get too much and then skip ahead tot he next line of **** that will let you know when the scenes have ended. i dont think anything in this chapter is necessarily too bad for people, but there are some things coming up that might be. you've been warned.
> 
> thanks again for all the lovely comments. i will see you guys tomorrow with another set of chapters for your enjoyment.

it had been a while since the genjitsu started, but neither seemed to be upset, they seemed calm and collected as they ran through the illusion.  
"what do you think she's showing him?"  
kakashi shrugged, he had no clue what all was in iruka's head. all they could do was wait and watch. they knew it was bad when it wasn’t iruka who started to cry but kurenai. asuma frowned as he watched his lover start to cry silently as she continued the illusion. asuma knew he couldn’t break the genjitsu, so he did what he could, he wrapped his arms around her gently and held her to him.  
"that’s not a good sign"  
genma muttered as he leaned back against raidou, his lover nodded against him. it took a lot to shake up kurenai, even though she was the most connected with her emotions out of all of them, the woman had seen enough in her days to not flinch at most things they encountered.  
it was more than ten minutes later that iruka showed the first signs of distress, his body tensing as if he was fighting something. jerking sporadically as if he had been hit by some unseen force. but just as the jerking started it stopped. whatever assault he was under had either abated or he had started to fight against the genjitsu itself instead of the memory. it was another five minutes before iruka started to cry. sighing kakashi moved himself behind the chunin, prepared to lower the man safely to the ground once the memory had run its course. if the chunin’s reaction was anything like his previous ones the man was going to end up falling aside and kakashi didn’t want to see the man hurt himself for not being aware of his surroundings after the illusion broke.  
all of them were surprised when both kurenai and iruka gasped suddenly and grabbed their heads as if they had been struck by something. their eyes sewn shut as the genjitsu was broken. asuma gathered his lover into his lap as she cried and tried to clear her head from the pain iruka’s forced exit of the jutsu had caused.  
it was only a second after he grabbed his head that iruka slumped against kakashi's chest, his body going limp. laying the chunin down into the soft grass the jounin looked up to kurenai, they all wanted to know what had happened. it took the woman a minute to gather herself and to wipe her face from the tears that had been shed. taking a deep breath, she wrapped her arms around one of asuma’s. with almost clinical precision she told her team what had happened.  
"he broke the genjitsu, but with more force than was necessary, he was doing more from desperation than on purpose at that point"  
the group waited for her to continue, but when she remained silent kakashi was the one to ask.  
“what did you see? it was a memory wasn’t it?”  
the woman nodded her head before glancing towards the downed chunin. sighing she looked back up to kakashi before stating.  
"if the council found out about this, if this had come out while we were investigating him. he'd be dead-its disjointed he was hiding things from me, i could tell that much and at the end there was something he didn’t want me to see. that’s why he was so desperate for the jutsu to end."  
none of them liked what they had just heard.  
"what was it about kurenai"  
looking to kakashi, she gave a small smile to the man, before looking towards the chunin who was passed out in the grass.  
"he was being tortured, that’s really the only way i could describe it, it was a type of conditioning, break him down so he'd comply with the order given to him, but iruka refused to break. he kept fighting against the order and he paid dearly for that-the wounds he received, he should have been in the hospital, but i know there's no record of him being seen with those injuries. we all saw his files..."  
taking a deep breath, she calmed herself enough to continue.  
"orochimaru knew about his kekkei genkai and was trying to get iruka to assassinate someone for him."  
their eyes widened, if iruka had actually acted under the command of his sensei and killed someone in the village for the man, there would be nothing anyone could do for him. asuma took the lead in being the voice of reason as the rest of the group looked on at the fallen man in the grass.  
"we need to find out if he carried out the assassination"  
kurenai nodded solemnly. she knew that she would have to probe more into the man's mind and find out if he had gone through with the snake sanins orders. if they even suspected iruka of lying about it, she or kakashi would have to find the truth.  
"did orochimaru say who the target was?"  
shaking her head she continued to stare at the chunin.  
"no, he didn’t say anyone’s name, just kept referring to him as a fool"  
with orochimaru’s love of people that could have been anyone in the village.  
"we need to wake him"  
genma said sourly, the group didn’t try and stop kakashi from being the one to attempt to wake the chunin, they just looked on as kakashi shook the man's shoulders, called his name and peeled back his eyelids to check for any response. knowing there was one sure fire way to get a response he looked to his team, they refused to look at him. taking it as a sign that they wouldn’t try and stop him, kakashi grasped the mans injured hand in his own and pressed down as hard as he could.   
iruka’s eyes snapped open almost instantly as he screamed at the sudden pain in his hand, kakashi let go as soon as the man's eyes opened but knew that wouldn’t dull the pain from what he'd done to the man.  
"iruka"  
kakashi said quickly, trying to get the chunin to focus soley on him. the man's eyes didn’t seem to focus on anything at first, but they eventually stopped rolling in their sockets to focus on him. smiling at the chunin kakashi tried to keep his voice calm and pleasant, he didn’t want to scare the man.  
"iruka who was orochimaru sending you after?"  
his teammates winced at the question. they all silently prayed that the man would just answer the question, but it didn’t seem like luck was on there side because the chunin just stared at kakashi blankly.  
"iruka-focus now, who did he send you after"  
iruka was in pain, his whole body hurt from the training he'd received, his head felt like it had been cracked open on a rock and his hand felt like someone had tried to dissect it and kakashi was asking him questions? listening as the man repeated his question, iruka's heart skipped a beat. so kurenai had told them. he should have fought the memory from the very beginning, he shouldn’t have gotten caught up in the stupid jutsu and revealed so much. iruka could feel the tears that must have fallen during the memory, but couldn’t find it in himself to be embarrassed by it. all he wanted to do was leave, to disappear and never have to answer anymore questions about his sensei ever again.  
"iruka"  
hearing his name once more and knowing it was kakashi trying to get him to respond told him that it wasn’t an option. taking a shuddering breath he let his body relax as he exhaled. the ache of his body now different from the wounds in the memory, but the scars were giving him a phantom pain as his body remembered that horrible time. his mind playing tricks with him as those wounds had long since healed. blinking a few times he tilted his head a bit to look up at the jounin leaning over him.  
"kakashi?"  
the jounin nodded his head.  
"yeah"  
closing his eyes, iruka had to try. he knew that the chances of kakashi or the others doing as he asked were slim to none, but he had to try.  
"please don’t ask"  
the group looked to one another, the way iruka was acting, it wasn’t looking good.  
"iruka, we have to know-who did he send you after?"  
kakashi didn’t want to have to force the man to answer him, but if it came to it he would do so for the safety of the village. his chest felt tight as he thought about what the chunin had been through, but he couldn’t allow his emotions for the man to get in the way of his duty to his hokage and village. about to ask the man again. kakashi stopped himself as he saw the tears flowing down the sides of iruka’s face. the chunin shook his head from side to side as he said.  
"it doesn’t matter"  
kakashi frowned at that.  
"what do you mean it doesn’t matter? orochimaru sent you to murder someone in the village."  
kakashi held up a hand to genma, stalling the man from making this harder than it had to be. iruka had winced upon hearing the harsh tone of the anbu, but was now just staring up at kakashi. the chunin swallowed before whispering.  
"i know"  
"who was it"  
kakashi asked once more.  
"the hokage"  
the group froze, iruka had been sent to kill the hokage? that didn’t make any sense. iruka loved the third, the third loved him.  
"iruka, orochimaru sent you after the third hokage?"  
"yeah"  
the chunin nodded his head. the group collectively sighed in relief, obviously the man hadn’t gone through with it, the third had died at orochimaru’s hands not iruka’s. there had been witnesses that saw the third die. sitting back on his heels kakashi nodded his head.  
"then you didn’t kill him, orochimaru killed the third. the whole village knows that."  
iruka nodded his head before admitting.  
"i couldn’t do it"  
they smiled, they knew how much iruka had looked up the third, it made sense that even with the threat of torture, of death that the man couldn’t bring himself to kill one of the few people in the village to show him kindness. the group frowned when the chunin suddenly spoke up once more.  
"the third-he just hugged me"  
ok that was confusing, looking to one another it was asuma who asked.  
"he hugged you? is that why you couldn’t do it"  
it seemed like a stupid reason to them, but if that was what prevented iruka giving into the torture orochimaru put him under then they’d take it. iruka shook his head, he had closed his eyes after telling them. wanting to block out the world for a little bit.  
"he hugged me because i tried"  
they froze, iruka had tried to kill the third.  
"what do you mean iruka, your not making any sense"  
kurenai sputtered in shock. iruka sighed.  
"he hugged me after i attacked him, after i tried to kill him for sensei. he just held me and wouldn’t let go...he wasn’t hurting me, he just wouldn’t let go."  
they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. iruka had actually attacked the third, where the hell was that in his file. nothing had been mentioned of third being attacked by anyone let alone iruka. frowning down at the chunin, kakashi had to ask.  
"iruka are you sure you actually attacked him? you might be confused with everything that happened between you an orochimaru. he might have-"  
kakashi tried to reason with the distraught man, but iruka suddenly cut the man off by telling them what he had done.  
"he was at home, the guards didn’t see me- they couldn’t see me...i just went through the tree's through the walls, like sensei told me too. i snuck up behind him while he was at his desk. just came right through the wall"  
they looked to one another, how had iruka managed to get that close to the third without him knowing, iruka had only been a child then, he probably wasn’t even a chunin then.  
"iruka, there was no mention of an attack to the third, in his office or in his home. not by you or orochimaru"  
asuma had to clarify the information for the younger man. he was sure that iruka was just confused like kakashi had tried to tell him. iruka ignored their attempts to convince him otherwise, instead choosing to inform them.  
"he never reported me, he knew what would happen to me if he did. i was just a stupid kid, he should have just called his anbu in, but instead he just sat there holding me."  
opening his eyes, he looked at the sky, the clouds just drifting away. he wish he could do that.  
"he never asked how i got in, or how i got passed his guards. he figured it didn’t matter since he was now aware that i was a threat. that’s when he started inviting me to tea, started making sure that i was looked after by his staff and showed an interest on who i became."  
"but what about orochimaru?"  
raidou questioned curiously. surely the sanin would have been caught much sooner had the third been made aware.  
"he asked me why, and i couldn’t tell him, i was too afraid, i was so scared by then of sensei, of what he would do to me since i had failed. he'd told me what would happen if i let it slip it was his idea. i knew he could easily get away with killing me, he'd already managed to get away with breaking my teammates neck. he always said that training accidents happened. the third only asked me twice, why i had come into his home and tried to murder him. the first time was when i was in his arms, the night of the attack. the second time was a week later when i showed up to his office for tea with a fractured arm and some broken ribs. i was still too afraid to tell him the truth, i knew he was disappointed in me, i could see it in his face. so i did the only thing i could think of to warn him of what was going on behind his back.”  
the group looked around at each other confused by what the chunin meant. if he had warned the third...  
“iruka you warned him about orochimaru?”  
the chunin shook his head.  
“no really...not like i should have, but he understood.”  
nodding his head kakashi asked.  
“how did you warn him?”  
iruka sighed before raising his hand up, showing his bare wrist where the two puncture marks from a snake lay. the group realized what iruka meant. he had revealed orochimaru to the third by showing him the scar that the snake sanin had given him in a training accident.  
"if the third knew about orochimaru's plan to kill him-"  
iruka nodded his head as he leveraged himself up onto his elbows to be able to see them all. if he was going to have to go through all of this, he at least wanted to know just how appalled they were with him.  
"at first i think he thought i was lying, i didn’t have the best record that was for sure. it wasn’t until some other things started happening concerning sensei that the third started asking more questions and watching sensei and me more closely. when sensei abandoned the village, the third called me into his office. i figured he was going to have me arrested or something, but all he did was hug me and apologize for not believing me. he made sure that no one knew about my involvement with his attempted assassination, he didn’t tell anyone of it that i know of."  
the group didn’t know what to think, up until a month ago they thought that iruka was just another chunin of the village, a school teacher of their students and nothing more. now they were finding out all of the man's deepest darkest secrets and it was painting quite a picture. silence rained over the group when iruka stopped talking. they weren’t sure what to say to the man. it was iruka who broke the silence by apologizing to kurenai.  
“sorry for breaking the jutsu like that...its just things got worse from there and...you really don’t need to see that to get the picture.”  
the woman nodded her head a bit stiffly before saying.  
“i understand. it was too much and i shouldn’t have pushed things, but when he...i’m sorry to have put you through that again.”  
iruka shook his head at her.  
“better you than someone else right?”  
kurenai and the others had pained looks on their faces, but nodded all the same to the chunin. sighing iruka nodded, this group of anbu had shown him more kindness than anyone except the third hokage. he wasn’t sure how to react to it, he didn’t want to be babied, but based on today's training that was not happening any longer. he just hoped that his past didn’t make them hate him. he jolted a little when he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking over he saw kakashi smiling at him.  
"i think we've done enough for today don’t you?"  
iruka sat up, wincing as his head throbbed from the sudden movement before answering.  
"yeah, my head is killing me, again, sorry about your arm genma and sorry about the genjitsu kurenai"  
the two anbu waved him off in reply. they knew the man didn’t mean to hurt them and it was frankly not a big deal compared to some of their previous injuries on the training field against one another. when you compared it to what the man had just told them, it was child’s play. getting to their feet iruka started for the entrance way to the training field. not even noticing when kakashi stayed back a minute.  
"until we find out more, we should keep this under wraps. if word got to the council about this, they would find a way to turn this around on him. if the third forgave him its over."  
the group nodded, they agreed that if the information got into the wrong hands that iruka would be facing more than a fine and some community work. he'd be looking at an execution. quickly catching up with the chunin. kakashi walked beside him as they walked back to the apartment.

iruka was happily greeted by mayonaka and was about to head down the hallway to his room when kakashi stopped him by grabbing his arm. iruka was startled by the sudden touch, glancing from the man’s hand on his arm up to the masked face staring at him.  
"what you told us today-the group agreed to keep it silent. if the third forgave you, there’s nothing more to be done."  
iruka smiled at kakashi, the chunin was relieved to know that the man and his team felt like that.  
"thank you-im going to go lay down for a bit"  
the copy nin nodded his head and released the man to retire to his room. he made his way into the living room to think about what all had happened during their training session. he idly wondered what would happen tomorrow.

*************

iruka lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. he'd finally told someone one of his darkest moments, he knew he should be terrified of them running to the hokage or ibiki with the knowledge, but he was oddly calm about the entire thing. if kakashi said that they weren’t going to mention it than he would believe them, at least until such a time that they showed otherwise. silently he prayed that he wouldn’t make a fool of himself again tomorrow, he wanted to hold onto some of those horrible memories and spare the group from hearing what he had endured. no one needed to know how close he'd come to being like his sensei. how at one point he had just wanted the torture to end and was willing to do anything asked of him just to have a respite from the pain. closing his eyes, iruka let his hand wander through mayonaka's fur as he drifted off to sleep.

********

kakashi knew things were most likely only going to get worse as they continued iruka's training, they were bound to find more horrible events in the man's life, especially with his lengthy time under orochimaru. the jounin couldn’t help but wonder how the man had kept it all quiet for so long, how he had just endured the pain brought on by the one person who was meant to protect him while he became a shinobi. unable to quell the racing of his own mind, kakashi gave into the temptation to make sure that the chunin was alright. sighing the jounin got up and checked on the chunin, he wasn’t surprised to find the man asleep, leaving him to rest the jounin decided to catch up on some reading. with any luck, his mind would quiet down now that he knew that the chunin was safely ensconced in his bed.

**********

iruka jolted awake at the knock on the door frame. taking a deep breath to calm himself he craned his head up to see kakashi leaning against the wood.  
"time to get up-another wonderful day of training awaits you"  
letting his head flop back to the bed he couldn’t help but call out.  
"you enjoy this too much"  
he heard the distinct laughter of the jounin as he made his way down the hallway. it didn’t take long for them to go through their morning routine and head off for the training field. quickly meeting up with kakashi's team they started the day off bright and early with raidou trying to kick iruka's skull in with taijitsu. or so the chunin said when the man motioned him towards the open field.  
the group watched highly amused as iruka tried his hardest to get the upper hand on raidou, but no matter what he seemed to try, raidou either blocked it or caused his own advance towards the chunin causing iruka to back off to avoid injury. it was a game of cat and mouse, with iruka being a very pathetic mouse.  
"is he sore today?"  
kakashi shrugged before commenting that iruka hadn’t complained about being sore. genma snorted before commenting.  
"he sure is avoiding raidou today isn’t he?"  
the group nodded as they watched iruka skirt by another move of raidou's barely avoiding contact from the other man. this continued for some time, before iruka got hit square in the chest causing them all to wince as the chunin crashed to the ground and rolled.  
"well i don’t think he can avoid him anymore-he's getting tired"  
iruka coughed, bracing his chest as he tried to draw air in from his compressed chest. that kick had been hard. looking up he saw raidou was patiently waiting for him to get up to continue instead of just attacking the already downed man. climbing to his feet iruka approached his teacher once more before they started another match.  
iruka was panting, sweat was dripping down his face and not even his hitae could keep it out of his eyes. raidou was not going easy on him. he was sure that the man was holding back, but he was no longer using the kiddie gloves he had before.  
the group watched as raidou continued to hand iruka his ass, landing the chunin on the ground over and over again until he finally called it quits when the chunin was having trouble getting back to his feet. stumbling back to the group iruka was relieved when he was able to sit down. he just hoped he wasn’t going to be expected to face off against asuma or genma right away. it seemed that the group had already decided his fate because kurenai cleared her throat to get his attention. ah yes the genjitsu. wiping his forehead iruka smiled at the red eyed woman and nodded that he was ready whenever she was.  
it didn’t take more than a second before he fell away into the illusion.

***********

iruka didn’t have time to think about where he was or what was going on because we was suddenly thrown into a fight against an faceless enemy. dodging the weapons thrown at him,iruka tried to run for cover only to feel the slice of his ankle, his tendon giving way to the sharp blade. crying out he tumbled to the ground. he knew his leg was useless now, he wouldn’t be able to run, he'd barely be able to defend himself. turning over iruka waited for the enemy to strike. but there was only silence. holding a kunai in front of him, he was prepared for anything he nearly dropped the weapon when an anbu stepped out of the forest.  
"anbu-san?"  
he could tell it was an anbu of leaf, the mask he wore was decorated in the typical fashion konoha used. he watched as the faceless man knelt in front of him, watching him. taking a shuddering breath iruka questioned.  
"were comrades-why'd"  
the anbu pulled out a kunai from his leg pouch, studying the chunin before him carefully, as if deciding if the man was worth the effort to kill. frowning iruka demanded to know what was going on.  
"answer me why are you attacking me"  
"i know the truth"  
that was all the anbu said and although it was ambiguous it made iruka's heart freeze. pulling away from the image before him, iruka fought the illusion, he'd had this nightmare many times before and knew that it wasn’t going to end well for him. pulling against the invisible barrier that kurenai had placed around his mind iruka was able to force her to relinquish control.

*********

they watched as the pair fell into the trance like state.  
"so what do you think their seeing?"  
genma asked while he chewed on a senbon. asuma shrugged before stating.  
"she had a hard time last night-after what happened"  
they nodded, they all felt bad about it, but there was nothing they could do. the events had taken place years ago, there was no way to undo the past. they watched as the pair suddenly blinked and iruka smiled at kurenai who was smiling back.  
"good work iruka"  
"thanks, though i have to ask why did you choose that?"  
kurenai wasn’t sure she wanted to reveal the real reason she had chosen that particular nightmare of his. the truth of the matter was she was wanting to know if he was afraid of them. unfortunately iruka was able to counter act the jutsu before she could get her answer.  
"i found it interesting, a weird nightmare to be sure"  
iruka shrugged before idly commenting.  
"i used to be afraid of masks in general, so its not really a fear of anbu per say. i couldn’t stand to come out around festival time. it was like a walking nightmare to me"  
"why masks?"  
genma asked suddenly. iruka shrugged his shoulders.  
"m'not really sure to be honest, i think it was something from when i was younger, before my parents died because i can remember them trying to soothe me when i got scared. in all honesty i have no idea where the fear would have come from."  
the group nodded in understanding. secretly relieved that the man didn’t appear to harbor a fear of anbu because of them. kurenai told iruka to get ready and the chunin nodded his consent to begin again.


	24. no mercy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka continues his genjitsu training with kurenai, gets to fight genma and learn how not to underestimate the anbu. kakashi and the team also plot against the chunin on how to test the man to see where they stand in training him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so yeah im posting a third chapter. the reason being that my neighbors need me to watch their dog as one of them is having open heart surgery and i have no idea when i'll be home. i plan to post tomorrow, it'll probably just be late. so to make up for that, i'm giving you another chapter tonight. its not much, but hopefully it will tide you over until later tomorrow. 
> 
> also we are officially past the half way mark of the story. dont worry there's still a lot more to come. we still have over 120,000 more words and with each chapter being around 5-7,000 words long. you'll still have a while before the story is all posted.
> 
> thanks for the comments and kudos. keep them coming, i like to know what you think about everything going on in the story.

he was walking, that much iruka could tell, but it took a moment for the scenery to become clear. he appeared to be in the forest, where he wasn’t sure. until he saw the marked up trunk of a tree. instantly he started to pull away from the illusion, but it held strong. iruka continued down the unmarked path against his will, following the small marks on the trees until a small cabin came into view. pulling against the mental restraints again he tried desperately to stop the jutsu before he was forced to see it again. to see this horrible place once more, still the jutsu held. coming through the last thicket, iruka drew closer to the cabin, it was in disrepair but was still usable. it had always been this way, abandoned and yet still usable for the horrible acts that took place inside it.   
coming to the door, he saw as his hand reached out to push open the door. iruka instinctively knew it was unlocked. iruka winced, he didn’t want to look,but he was forced to look through another version of himself as the door swung open to reveal a variety of things. the foremost thing was a large table in the middle of the room. chains were draped a crossed it, deep staining covered most of the surface of the table. a deep brownish red. blood. shuddering, iruka tried again to outmaneuver kurenai, but she was already a step ahead of him. gritting his teeth iruka watched as the figure he was inhabiting moved through the cabin, knives and senbon littered the floor and walls. it looked like a battle had taken place here. coming around the only partition in the cabin revealed a younger version of himself dangling off the ground, held up by two senbon, one in each shoulder. a growing puddle of blood was accumulating on the already well stained floor. the younger version of iruka's head bolted up as the figure entered the room. his nearly naked frame shaking in terror. fear showed in the eyes of the young boy staring back at him. still the figure he was playing crept closer and closer until it was just a hairs breath away from the boy.   
iruka watched as a hand came up revealing a kunai aimed at the boy. iruka shook his head as he realized what was going on, he was his sensei right now. getting frustrated, iruka thrashed against the genjitsu, but it wouldn’t budge. kurenai was good at what she did, that much was for sure. gritting his teeth iruka watched the scene unfold.  
the younger version of himself had his eyes locked onto the weapon that was threatening to come down to cut him. his eyes pleading for mercy, when he knew that no mercy would be given. in a slow motion the kunai was dragged across the boy's bare stomach, drawing a thin line of blood across the tan skin. showing just how delicate the membrane was to the sharpness of the knife.  
pulling against the mental barriers, iruka finally started to feel them give way, he continued to struggle as the scene played out in front of him.  
the blade came up to be shown to the boy, a small bit of blood collected on the blades shiny surface. rather suddenly the blade was struck forward, embedding in the wood next to the boy's face, cutting the boys cheek in the process. the younger iruka winced at the cut, his cheek beginning to bleed immediately.  
iruka's struggles continued as he watched as the boy's broken arm was picked up, a harsh hand squeezing the discolored swollen limb, eliciting a cry of pain from the pinned version of him. then as quick as a flash something darted out and struck the boy's wrist. iruka cried out as two holes began to bleed from the boys wrist, even though it wasn’t ‘him’ experiencing the pain. iruka knew that the tiny punctures were not showing just how dangerous they really were until much later.  
struggling once more against the confines of his own mind, iruka finally found an edge to the genjitsu. iruka tore at it and shoved with all his might. the jutsu crumbled. just as the boy was once again struck in the neck by the same two pronged weapon.

**********

it seemed that whatever illusion she was using was taking a longer time then usual. they'd been submerged for a quite a while, but neither seemed to be effected by whatever they were seeing.  
"maybe its zombies again?"  
the rest of the group snorted at genma. they seriously doubted that kurenai was going to go that easy on the chunin after what he had been through yesterday. the whole idea was to desensitize him from his memories so they couldn’t be used as a weapon against him. they watched as kurenai frowned, her brow creasing whether in effort to keep the jutsu or because of what she was witnessing they did not know.  
iruka suddenly gasped, taking in a harsh breath catching their attention. the jutsu was still in place, but it appeared it was beginning to effect the chunin. it was only a couple more minutes before iruka too started to frown.  
"well their thinking hard about something"  
asuma said around his cigarette. his teammates just watched as the jutsu still held the two in an illusion. finally after what seemed like forever the pair blinked, iruka coughing a bit as if he was trying to expel some dust from his lungs. kurenai leaned back against asuma and watched as iruka caught his bearings.  
"what was that?"  
she had to ask, she thought she knew, but wanted to make sure she was correct. iruka smiled through his coughing fit, finally getting a hold of himself he raised his wrist, showing off the scar of the snake bite. kurenai pursed her lips, but nodded.  
"i thought so, but without actually seeing a snake, i wasn’t sure"  
iruka nodded confirming what the kunoichi had suspected. kurenai smiled at the chunin before telling him.  
"you did well, you didn’t panic but you fought against the flow of the illusion."  
"thanks, you put up a hell of a barrier, i was beginning to think you forgot what we were doing"  
she smiled before admitting.  
" i might have gotten carried away out of curiosity"  
iruka just laughed. shaking his head he had to state.  
"i would think that you saw enough bad things while in anbu, why want to see more"  
kurenai smiled at the kind man before her before replying.  
"because its different when its a friend"  
iruka froze, they thought of him as a friend? he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. this kunoichi who could spend her time with anyone in the village easily, thought of him as her friend. blushing the chunin managed to say.  
"thanks"  
he muttered, the slight blush to his cheeks brought amusement to the anbu around him. asuma cracked his neck suddenly and asked.  
"well now that you've had a little break why don’t we see how you do against me today"  
standing asuma waited for iruka to follow him. as the two walked away, kakashi asked kurenai.  
"you saw him being bitten by snakes"  
"yeah, it was another part of a memory i've seen before, from the one from yesterday. there's still pieces missing though, he really doesn’t want to give all the information up. i don’t know if he's doing that because he doesn’t want me to see him like that, or just is embarrassed at what happened to him when he had no power over the situation. either way he was being held somewhere by orochimaru and tortured."  
the shinobi listened intently to what kurenai had to say about the matter before turning their attention onto the field where asuma was making iruka dodge his trench blades up close and personal. iruka was doing a fair job of it, making sure to give extra allowance for the chakra flare around the knives. the chunin had a kunai in each hand and was trying to make asuma have to dodge his own weapons, which wasn’t working out too well for the chunin. iruka kept stumbling backwards to avoid being cut and couldn’t get close enough to make any damage of his own on his opponent. jumping backwards they watched as iruka fiddled with something in his weapons pouch, asuma raised a brow but allowed the chunin to prepare for whatever trick he was going to try.   
iruka pulled the shuriken out of his pouch, he knew he probably only had one chance of hitting asuma, he also knew that the man would be expecting him to use snake venom, which was preciously why he wasn’t using any. he was determined to use asuma's own blades against him. launching a shuriken at the man, iruka wasn’t surprised when asuma deflected it like any shinobi would. when he threw the second one he could see asuma beginning to call into question his sanity of wasting weapons.   
shaking his head asuma dodged the other shuriken before stalking towards the chunin. he was able to dodge two more shuriken and two kunai before getting close enough to take a swing at the chunin who apparently wanted to use up all his own ammo on attacks that weren’t going to land. about to swing his arm around to strike at iruka's chest, asuma found that he was frozen in place. looking to iruka he saw the cocky smile on the teachers face. but looking at himself found no cuts from any weapons, so how could he have paralyzed him?  
they watched as asuma suddenly froze as he was walking to iruka.  
"snake venom?"  
"maybe"  
they watched as iruka brought his hand up to his own neck and asuma seemingly copied him, iruka made sure to allow for the chakra around the blades, he didn’t want to actually hurt asuma, he just wanted to make a point about charging blindly at his opponents. watching as his own arm came around to point his own weapon at himself. asuma's eyes widened at the implications, then he saw it. wire. incredibly thin wire was wrapped around his arms and looking down found it to be wrapped around his torso and legs as well. but when had the chunin had time to get wire in place to stop him from progressing?

their eyes widened as they watched the two stop at a standstill. it was obvious that iruka had won the match, but it still left the question as to how. they heard asuma curse before iruka let his hand drop, which in turn allowed asuma’s hand to drop. iruka let go of the wires in his hand, effectively releasing asuma from his trap. once he was no longer trapped asuma followed the wires to see they were embedded in the tree's surrounding the field. the kunai and shuriken he had dodged having embedded the wire into the bark of the tree's. the anbu had effectively trapped himself without knowing it. turning to look back at iruka he nodded his head.  
"remember that for your exam"  
iruka broke into a grin, it wasn’t often that asuma gave praise, in fact he couldn’t recall the man ever giving praise so openly. walking back to the group asuma shook his head as he explained what had happened. the anbu were thrilled with iruka's ability to think on his feet. genma was chomping at the bit to have his turn with the chunin after the embarrassing fiasco yesterday with his arm.  
"my turn"  
iruka groaned before commenting that genma was way too thrilled to be beating on him. the anbu just walked past him, grabbing the chunin's arm as he passed to drag him along.  
the group laughed as they watched genma drag the tired chunin back onto the field for ninjitsu training. they both disappeared the instant their match started, leaving the other anbu to talk with each other.  
"if he uses that trick with one of the judges he'll get high marks for sure."  
"if he has the opportunity too, they might all attack at once, then he's going to have a lot tougher time not only defending himself, but giving as good as he gets."  
raidou commented, which brought up the subject of when they were going to train with multiple people fighting iruka at the same time. kakashi shrugged and said they could start tomorrow since it was iruka's last day off before he returned to work for a couple days.  
"he's gonna love you for that, he'll be so sore after tomorrow"  
kakashi smiled before retorting that it had been his idea for the chunin to just take some time off to better prepare for the exam, but that iruka was too stubborn to do so.  
“ he's always been a workaholic, if he passes i doubt that will change much"  
asuma boasted. kakashi nodded his head, asuma was right, they hardly ever saw the chunin just out in the village, he was always at the school, the mission desk, or the hokage office helping with one thing or another. if he made jounin rank, the man would have to make some tough decisions on what he wanted to do.  
they felt the wind whip around them as a jutsu was cast off in the distance. they paid it little mind.  
"so did you two talk about yesterday?"  
kakashi shook his head to raidou  
"no, he went straight to bed, i think it was a little too much for him"  
raidou nodded his head, it wasn’t surprising that the chunin didn’t want to talk about his painful memories after having just revealed them by force through genjitsu. he knew he wouldn’t be so open to the idea of talking about it if it were him. a couple explosion tags went off in the background catching their attention for a minute.  
"are you going to tell him about what we have planned for tomorrow?"  
kakashi grinned at his team before stating.  
"part of me wants to surprise him just to see the shock on his face, but the other part of me wants to give him fair warning that tomorrow is most likely going to suck for him"  
the other anbu laughed, leave it to kakashi to be torn between having fun at another’s expense or being a nice guy. they saw a couple tree's tip over a little ways back, but nothing else happened so they returned to their conversation.  
"do you think we should go easy on him for his first time against a couple of us?"  
kakashi shook his head, he meant it when he said they couldn’t baby iruka anymore, not if they wanted him to not only survive his exam but also pass it. the others understood kakashi’s reasoning, not that it made it any easier for them to hurt the kind man, especially knowing how much pain he had endured while 'training' under orochimaru.  
rather suddenly iruka came skidding to a stop through the tree's he was panting like crazy and looking over his shoulders.  
"problem?"  
raidou asked with an evil smirk on his face.  
"i lost him-i cant find him"  
raidou nodded his head before helpfully suggesting.  
"ah, keep running"  
iruka paled at that, but darted off into the forest. once he was gone they broke off into laughter at the chunin's expression. hearing a large explosion they watched as black smoke filtered through the trees into the open sky.  
"i think genma found him"  
they nodded, genma was known for using smoke bombs to confuse his enemy. they had no doubt that is what they had just seen go off.  
it was only ten minutes later that genma came walking back, leading a very disorientated iruka by the hand. the chunin was covered in a black tar like substance, that they knew was one of genma’s favorite immobilizers.  
"have fun?"  
iruka spit, a glob of black sludge coming from his mouth.  
"that stuff is vile"  
the chunin muttered as he attempted to wipe the black tar off of himself in vain.  
"well your not supposed to eat it"  
genma retorted as he shook his head. iruka glared before commenting  
"i didn’t have much of a choice when you appeared right in front of me and detonated the damn thing"  
genma started laughing at the chunin, which only made iruka glare harder.  
"yeah but your face was priceless"  
the others smiled at the pair arguing. standing up kakashi didn’t bother to try and touch the covered chunin, but instead suggested that they head back to the apartment so the man could take a shower to rid himself of the black tar.  
"this better wash off"  
the chunin muttered as he sent genma a glare. genma snorted before telling him it would come off eventually. that got him another icy glare from the chunin. kakashi motioned for iruka to start heading for the exit, not touching him lest he get some of the black sludge on himself. iruka waved goodbye before making his way out of the training field. kakashi right behind him.  
"you'll love this gen, we get to train him as a group tomorrow"  
genma's smile stretched from ear to ear as he thought up ways to torture the chunin during their next match.

***********

people stared at him as they walked back to the apartment, iruka had no doubt that he was quite the sight to behold, but it was still rude to stare at someone. kakashi just read his porn as he walked beside him like nothing was amiss. iruka was tempted to slime the man's book, but figured that would take energy and that was just something that he did not currently have.  
as kakashi was about to unlock the door iruka warned him.  
“mayonaka, for the love of god don’t let her jump on me like this. i am not cleaning this shit out of her fur.”  
kakashi chuckled and nodded to the distressed chunin. opening up the door carefully, kakashi was able to get a hold of the rowdy ninken and keep her at bay so iruka could escape to the bathroom. wrangling mayonaka into the living room kakashi sat in his chair and petted the dog. from his chair in the living room kakashi could hear iruka cursing as he tried to get out of his soiled clothing. shaking his head the jounin stroked mayonaka's head before commenting.  
"i don’t think he enjoyed genma’s trick"  
the ninken tilted her head to the jounin before begrudgingly laying down at his feet to wait out the chunin. it was almost a full hour later when iruka managed to make an appearance. his hair still damp, but freed from the tar like substance. smirking up at the chunin kakashi asked.  
"have a good shower?"  
the glare he received told him no, smiling he decided to fill the chunin in.  
"genma created that little technique with the purpose of trapping his own teammates after they made fun of him for having a crush on raidou when they were younger. the only difference was it wouldn’t wash off until genma released it"  
iruka's eyes were wide at that knowledge that he could have been stuck like that until the anbu released him. he was silently grateful that the anbu hadn’t decided to punish him in the same way.  
the pair fell into an amicable silence, going about their business only to stop to make dinner before returning to reading their respective books. iruka wished the nin a good night and called mayonaka to follow him, leaving kakashi to stay up for a little longer before he too retired for the evening. he knew that iruka was going to be in for a shock tomorrow.

*********

iruka wasn’t sure if he was just getting used to the new schedule or if it was some cruel joke, but iruka was awake before kakashi ever knocked on the door. he'd already managed to get ready and shocked the nin by being fully prepared for the day.  
"why aren’t we eager today"  
iruka snorted before commenting that he couldn’t stay asleep. kakashi nodded before escorting the man outside the apartment and locking up after saying goodbye to the ninken for the day. it didn’t take long for them to arrive at the typical meeting spot within the anbu training field. however iruka was puzzled when he saw the other ninja standing instead of reclining in the grass like they usually were. looking to kakashi as they approached iruka asked.  
"something wrong?"  
"nope"  
when he didn’t get an explanation iruka just sighed and continued the rest of the way to meet the group.  
"good morning"  
they greeted him back before genma had the gall to ask.  
"so how'd you fair getting it off?"  
the anbu received a glare from the chunin, which only made genma’s smile brighter. it was raidou who broke up the two feuding men.  
"alright alright, we have a lot to do today so lets get started"  
looking to the older man iruka questioned what was up. when he saw them staring at kakashi the chunin frowned and asked the copy ninja what was happening.  
"mah we might be upping the ante a little today"  
frowning iruka asked.  
"how much"  
the others watched as kakashi brought his fingers up and showed just a smidgen. iruka didn’t seem to believe him and the others couldn’t help but laugh a little at the put out look on the chunin’s face.  
"i see he decided not to tell you, so i will. were going to train you today in survival skills"  
iruka shrugged his shoulders at asuma, that’s what they had been doing all along so he didn’t know why this was any different from any other day. smirking at the chunin genma let the big surprise slip.  
"at the same time"  
iruka blinked a moment before looking around to the group of anbu around him. they didn’t look threatening at the moment, but he knew better. iruka couldn’t help but sputter.  
"at the same time? there's no way i'll last against all of you attacking at once"  
kurenai placated the man by saying.  
“you’ll get a head start, you can hide or create traps. whatever you feel would be a good use of that time. they’ll do the same thing in the exam, you get a head start. once the time is up, other shinobi will be hunting you.”  
still iruka was just gaping at them. kakashi put his hand on the teachers shoulder.  
"mah it will be fine"  
twisting his head about to look at the jounin, iruka squinted his eyes at the man before stating in a defeated tone.  
"your going to use the sharingan aren’t you?"  
"yep"  
iruka groaned, looking up to the sky he didn’t know why he had thought today might be good. it was obvious they were trying to kill him. sighing iruka figured there was nothing he could do about today’s exercise, so he chose to ask one of the biggest questions that popped into his mind.  
"what happens if you catch me?"  
raidou smirked before stating.  
"you lose a point in your final score, it you land a hit or trap us somehow you get a point"  
blinking in shock, iruka scowled and said.  
"your scoring me now?"  
raidou grinned and nodded.  
"just like in the exam"  
sighing iruka nodded, he supposed it was better he have somewhat of a trial run than to go in completely blind when it came time for the real thing. kurenai broke up the group, by telling iruka.  
"alright iruka, go get ready, you get ten minutes....starting now."  
iruka nodded and quickly darted off into the forest leaving the team of anbu to wait the required time. as the anbu watched the chunin run off into the forest asuma asked.  
"so how hard are we going to push him today?"  
the copy nin just smiled as he lifted up his hitae exposing the sharingan eye.  
"he's probably going to want to call in tomorrow"  
was the only response they got, nodding their heads they waited a few minutes more before starting the chase.


	25. outnumbered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka is put to the test against his friends. the anbu are going all in to test what the chunin needs more work on before his own jounin exam. facing so many enemies at once is something that iruka had yet to deal with in his shinobi career, learning to move around all the people hunting might just be too much for the chunin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day, so yay i didn't get held up extra long today. im going to post both of todays chapters at once as i've yet to be able to work on my other stories im currently writing. posting all at once means i can do some writing today, so you dont have to wait a couple more hours for the second chapter. lucky you. 
> 
> thanks again for all the wonderful comments and kudos. almost to 100 kudos. never thought this little story of mine would get so much fan fair.

iruka was hiding in the tree's, well not in them, but among them. he wasn’t a fool he knew that using his kekkai genkai over and over again would just get him 'killed' in this little game. he'd tire too easily and probably fall face first into one of his enemies for the day. so he had chosen to go the smart route, he’d managed to set as many different traps as he could in the ten minute head start he was given. he was just hoping to avoid getting caught in a genjitsu, he knew they weren’t about to just let him go if they caught him in one of those, it would be a training exercise to see how long it took him to break free.  
hearing an explosive tag go off, iruka could only hope that he had earned a point with that one. swiveling his head around when he heard movement, iruka quickly melded into the tree he had been hiding behind. not even a moment later genma landed on the tree and looked around as if waiting for something. iruka kept his concentration on his kekkai genkai, the last thing he wanted was to fall out of the tree onto genma. that would definitely lose him a point. instead he readied a kunai and prepared to sneak up on the man. phasing through the tree behind genma, he hid his chakra and was about to place the knife to the nin's back when crashing from about forced him to jump to a neighboring tree. raidou just waved at him. well shit they were working together. genma had just played bait and he had fallen for it. racing to the left he wasn’t surprised when the ninja followed him. doing the only thing he could think of, he through a smoke bomb and phased into the tree in front of him. staying hidden he watched as they searched the area, before they moved on. sighing iruka allowed himself to come out of hiding. taking a breather he pulled out some ninja wire and prepared another trap. if he could set up a little base for himself and stick to the trees when they got too close maybe he could trap them over and over again without them getting close enough to make a hit on him. it wasn’t a solid plan, but it was all he had. laying the last of the wire iruka smiled at his handy work. deciding it was worth a shot, he stopped hiding his chakra and activated the trap. he knew he was practically doing the equivalent of jumping up and down and saying hit me, but it was the only way to test his little theory. stepping into the shadows he waited. it wasn’t long before asuma and kurenai showed up. they saw the trap and easily avoided the wires,shaking their heads at the same time at the obvious mess left by iruka. smiling iruka pulled on the wire in his hand and the trap sprang into action. the coils on the ground that had looked like a random mess shot up into the sky and wrapped around the neighboring trees before pulling tight around its captives. asuma was cursing as he was suspended by the coils. kurenai let out a laugh as she tried to untangle herself.  
"two points iruka"  
they knew the chunin would hear them and after awarding the points the two anbu began to untangle themselves. smiling iruka darted further into the forest, he wasn’t about to stick around for them to get loose. panting a bit he leaned against a tree, resting his back there as he collected his thoughts. he was at a distinct disadvantage. they were using their anbu skills to blend into the forest completely he couldn’t sense anyone around him, but he knew they had to be close if not already watching him. trying to think of what to do next he narrowly avoided the kunai aimed for his head, instead ducking and bolting to the next tree he was about to phase when he was crashed harshly into the bark and was held there.  
"lose a point"  
cursing he waited for the ninja to let him go. turning around he stared a the mismatched eyes that were smiling at him. kakashi nodded to him before saying.  
"get going"  
nodding, iruka phased into the tree instead of jumping away. leaving kakashi to watch the man disappeared again. kakashi couldn’t help but be fascinated by the man's ability. looking around he wasn’t surprised when he saw nothing. if iruka was smart he would get as far away as he could before coming out of the trees. launching himself back into the tree tops kakashi started the hunt again.  
this continued for some time, iruka planning traps and evading them when they got too close, he didn’t gain any more points but he also didn’t lose any after his encounter with kakashi. he was beginning to tire though. he'd already used his phasing too much and it was beginning to show in how he moved about.   
twisting around he barely got his kunai up in time to block raidou's own weapon, but had to jump away before he could kick him in the chest. panting he stared at the man with narrowed eyes before glancing around.  
"where's genma?"  
raidou just smiled, frowning iruka bolted, only to have to suddenly jump out of the way as genma appeared in front of him without warning. instead of phasing though, while he was mid jump he was able to reach out use his foot to kick off of the back of genma’s head as he continued through the forest. he could hear raidou laughing as he vanished. then genma’s angry voice calling out.  
"one point and don’t use my damn head as a launching post."  
smiling iruka kept running until his legs were beginning to shake. he didn’t know how much longer he'd be able to play their little game. it was already past noon and he had no illusions that they weren’t going to stop for lunch. he'd have to use what little fuel he had left from breakfast to keep moving. landing on a tree branch he crouched to give his legs a breather. looking all around he couldn’t help but wonder what the real test would be like. how was he going to be able to hunt for food while he was being hunted like this? there was just no way iruka was going to be sleeping during the test let alone getting a chance to eat. iruka’s thoughts were broken by the sounds of birds suddenly leaving the tree tops. frowning he looked up to see the flock of birds going over head. someone was near by. keeping himself low to the branch he was balancing on he waited for an attack. but nothing happened. allowing himself to stand he was about to launch off of the branch when he felt a knife to this throat. groaning he waited for it to move away before turning to see who had caught him. asuma smiled at him  
"lose a point"  
nodding his head iruka was about to jump down to the forest floor to keep going when he twisted to find kurenai right behind him. knowing instantly what she was up too he closed his eyes and fell from the branch. landing on the ground he bolted into the cover of the bushes. catching his breath a moment he watched as she let the jutsu go that had managed to get cast on her lover instead of him. smiling iruka waited and sure enough she sighed out.  
“you get a point”  
nodding his head iruka crept backwards before allowing himself to phase into a nearby tree to distance himself from the anbu. allowing himself a little respite inside the safety of the tree's he wasn’t sure what to do now, they were closing in on him faster and faster, that didn’t leave him any time to set traps. they were trying to force him out into the open to fight hand to hand. something he knew he would fail at. knowing he had wasted enough time and far too much chakra hiding in the safety of the tree, he phased out of it and looked around. then an idea struck him. smiling iruka darted across the branches and headed back to the beginning. racing through them it wasn’t long before he could hear people following him. weaving in and out of the tree's and phasing right through others that his enemies would have to go around bought him some time. enough time for him to lead them back into his original field of traps. iruka easily avoided them,but could hear the anbu skid to a stop as they nearly set one off. hunkering down out of sight he waited. he could hear someone dismantling one of his traps and pouted for a moment before another idea struck him. peaking his head out he could see kakashi about to cut the correct wire to disengage the trap. whistling he caught the nin's attention before throwing his own weapon to detonate the trap with kakashi in the middle of it. pulling back into the bushes iruka couldn’t help but laugh as kakashi found himself dragged into the ground up to his neck. iruka smirked as kakashi struggled a bit before gritting out.  
“ha ha, you get a point.”  
turning to run once more, iruka took notice of the other nin as he struggled to remove himself from the hard earth. knowing he was ahead of them in points iruka couldn’t help but feel somewhat relieved. sure he had managed to get caught a couple of times. but so far he was holding his own. as if kami himself decided to strike down the non believer iruka was suddenly hit from behind and went crashing into a tree, making a dent in the bark as he fell to the ground below. he was able to catch himself before colliding with the ground but he was seriously winded from the blow.  
"lose a point"  
came from up above him. nodding his head iruka tried to catch his breath when he heard footsteps coming his way. cursing he looked around to see genma and raidou approaching after already making him lose a point. so he did the only thing he could do, he phased. his chakra by now was dropping radically every time he did so, but when there was no other escape option he felt he had no choice. carrying himself through to another set of tree's further away from the duo, he phased out and leaned heavily against the tree. he was sweating fiercely and he couldn’t get control of his breathing, which he was sure was just going to give him away. iruka knew he had maybe two more phases in him before he'd be screwed. he'd have to plan them carefully or risk losing the ability to run from his wannabe captors.   
coming to stand under his own power, he winced as his side protested the movement. raidou sure did kick hard. knowing he didn’t have much time, iruka started to jump from branch to branch. he was just about to land on another one, when he was forcefully shoved against a tree, the impact jarred the chunin who hissed at the brute strength behind the blow. opening his eyes iruka wasn’t too surprised to see asuma behind the powerful blow. the man was made of pure muscle after all.  
"lose a point"  
asuma released the man in front of him and regarded iruka for a second as the chunin quickly took off through the forest. iruka was tired, that much was obvious, but he was also skilled at hiding his chakra levels. there was no way to know just how low the man truly was, unless they could somehow force him to use a large enough amount of chakra to be sensed. waiting for kurenai to land beside him he commented.  
"he's getting tired, he should have seen that coming"  
she nodded her head, they didn’t know the mans limits when it came to training this hard, there was no telling when his chakra would be depleted and if the man would try to keep going, which was not recommended. nodding her head kurenai suggested.  
"we should warn the others, we don’t want to land him in the hospital"  
nodding they took off to warn their teammates. it didn’t take long for their teammates to join them after they used their anbu tatoo’s to call them to their side. once they had joined together as a group up in the tree tops, asuma told them of his findings. it was kakashi who spoke out.  
"one more offensive, then we call it a day"  
nodding their heads, they each raced off into different directions to try and find the evasive teacher.   
iruka on the other hand was getting confused. the attacks against him had spiked one after another and now this long gap. he was grateful for the chance to catch his breath, but it also made him very paranoid. what were they up too? placing another tag on a tree iruka prepared to leave the area when he noticed he could hear movement from just up ahead. ducking behind the tree he'd just targeted for an explosion, he waited. the noise passed and he was allowed to come out of hiding to bolt the opposite direction. he smiled when he heard the explosion, and wondered if he would get another point for creativity.  
coughing, kakashi shook his head to dull the ringing in his ears radiating throughout his head. he had to give iruka credit, he was definitely creative with the use of tags and wire. jumping to another branch of the now leaning tree kakashi scouted out the area and let the sharingan do its job. search for movement. it spun in its socket as it swept from one side of the forest to the other before finally finding movement off in the distance. smiling beneath his mask he made his way to catch up with chunin.  
iruka had just put together another trap when he heard movement from behind him, not chancing it he cursed and phased into the tree just as an enemy landed. he heard them mutter about stupid tree's, smiling iruka watched as genma turned around and told raidou that he'd gone and hid in a tree again. the chunin waited for them to leave before falling out of the tree to land on his hands and knees on the branch panting. he didn’t think he could phase again, this was more than he'd ever done especially all in one day. he vaguely heard a couple traps go off at once, he knew instinctively that he hadn’t caught anyone if they went off that fast in succession. forcing himself to his feet iruka swayed a bit until he could regain his balance and focus his chakra on his feet to hold him in place. sighing at his limitations, iruka looked around to see if there was any movement. all was quiet. smiling he started to leave the area, hoping that maybe one of his newer traps would catch one of the anbu. iruka only made it a mile before he had to duck as kurenai swung at him, avoiding looking at her face for fear of being trapped in an illusion, the chunin used her body language to determine what she was going to do next. sure enough she jumped towards him, her legs kicked out to catch her which only meant one thing. she was going to use her arms to try and hit him somehow. rolling to the side he heard the branch crack as he barely made it to another tree in time. deciding it was now or never he threw some kunai and ran for the bulk of the tree. he mustered up what chakra he had left and phased right through the tree to avoid her weapons aimed at his back. he made it through, he could see the sky, and then iruka was falling.  
"asuma!"  
iruka wondered vaguely what was wrong with asuma, had one of his traps hurt the ninja? he didn’t think they would but maybe he had been wrong, the chunin grunted as he fell through the branches of the large tree hearing them crack and break under the weight of his body plummeting to the ground. iruka knew he should be worried, but he had nothing left to try and soften the blow with, his very body was unresponsive to anything he wanted it to do. he winced as another branch cracked into his back with enough force to wind the chunin. it was then that iruka realized he was no longer falling, someone must have caught him because he was up against a solid mass as it jumped up instead of falling downwards towards the earth. the chunin let his eyes slide closed as the last of his energy faded from his overtaxed body. he needed a break, just for a moment.  
asuma heard kurenai's call and darted around the tree in time to see iruka start to fall, he wasn’t able to stop the chunin from colliding with a couple branches but was able to prevent the man from crashing into the solid ground below. bracing the smaller man against his chest asuma jumped up with the chunin in his grasp to land on a sturdy branch. kurenai joined him swiftly.  
"is he alright?"  
her voice pitched with concern, looking the chunin over they were relieved to see that he didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere.  
"he must have used up the last of his chakra trying to get away from me"  
asuma nodded, shaking the man in his arm to try and get a response from the comatose man. iruka groaned, but he still lay limp against him. smiling to kurenai asuma spoke up, a little amused.  
"i think he's done for the day"  
she smiled and nodded before using her anbu tattoo to signal the others to where they were. it wasn’t more than a minute before the others arrived and started asking what had happened. asuma cut them all off by stating.  
"chakra depletion, he didn’t know when to call it quits apparently."  
kakashi shook his head as he peeled back one of the chunin's eyelids, iruka responded a little which meant he wasn’t completely out cold. letting the man rest a moment, they jumped down from the canopy and laid him on the ground before finding their own comfortable spots to wait for the chunin to come around.  
"so how'd he do against you guys?"  
the others quickly told about their own encounters with the chunin, they got the most kick out of iruka's ability to kick genma’s head as a landing point and his talent at making kurenai genjitsu asuma instead of himself. it was about that time that iruka groaned again and his hand came up to rub his forehead. smiling they waited as brown eyes opened again and came into focus. the first thing that came out of the tired man’s mouth was.  
"did i win?"  
they laughed. leave it to the exhausted man in front of them to be more concerned with the game than with his own health. it was raidou who answered the chunin.  
"you did pretty well for your first time, minus the chakra depletion of course but considering you were able to hit us a couple times were impressed."  
iruka frowned at that, he had hoped he would do better, sighing he smiled at the group and asked if everyone was ok. they replied by asking if he was ok.  
"im fine, just a little tired."  
to that asuma raised his brow and pointed out that iruka had managed to use up all his chakra to where he couldn’t even hold himself upright in a tree and had taken a swan dive to the ground. iruka stuck out his tongue in response.  
"hey i got away didn’t it i"  
"yeah you did, but making yourself faint while evading enemies wont get you very far in the long run."  
genma pointed out, to which iruka muttered about technicalities. the anbu smiled at him. deciding that he was getting nowhere with the anbu around him, iruka asked.  
"what supplies will they give me, for the test i mean"  
genma smirked back at the chunin’s obvious choice to avoid their previous conversation and said.   
"you'll have a normal weapons kit, nothing fancy, some wire a couple exploding tags a canteen of water and i believe two ration bars and maybe a soldier pill, depending on who is challenging you"  
iruka knew in his head that the chances of him getting that much in his supply kit was slim to none but just nodded with a smile on his face.  
"have you ever used a soldier pill iruka?"  
kurenai asked skeptically. the teacher nodded before saying.  
"those things taste like dirt, but they are effective"  
"when'd you use one?"  
asuma asked suddenly. iruka turned his gaze over to the larger man and replied.  
"when i was training, with my team, sensei gave us a a survival kit and said to start running. not too different from what we did today really"  
the group frowned before raidou supplied.  
"kids aren’t supposed to have soldier pills, it could damage their developing chakra pathways. most chunin don’t have experience with them until they’re seasoned shinobi."  
iruka shrugged his shoulders.  
“well either way it came in handy when dealing with sensei.”  
the others didn’t say anything, the more they found out about iruka's time with orochimaru the more they felt that the village had failed the man. not noticing the troubled looks on the anbu around him, iruka asked.  
"want to go grab some food, im starving"  
the group nodded and after getting a wobbly iruka to his feet they headed back into town. they ended up going to bbq and iruka dived into his plate with gusto much to the amusement of his teachers. they were nearly done with their meal, when they heard someone call out iruka's name. twisting around iruka frowned when he saw the girl from the interrogation office coming towards them. she was carrying a stack of folders and looked relieved to have finally found the man.  
"hello suri, whats the problem?"  
"ibiki-san wanted you to have this right away"  
she handed out a folder to the chunin, which was grabbed rather suddenly by kakashi lunging over the table a bit. the chunin sent him a glare before returning to his conversation with the girl.  
"whats it about?"  
she looked to the people around the chunin, she of course didn’t know that they worked for ibiki and were actually more than jounin instructors for the present team of genin.  
"its alright suri-chan, ibiki’s let kakashi help me with things before. and the others wont say anything."  
nodding her head the girl continued.  
"we got new information about wave, some of its encrypted so ibiki-san wanted you to look at it right away. so far the other transcribers have managed to get some locations out of the information, but ibiki-san knew you could get the information done sooner, so he sent me to find you"  
iruka nodded and thanked the woman before sending her off, turning back around he frowned when he saw that kakashi was cheerfully going through the file he had stolen much to his teammates amusement.  
"you know that’s classified right?"  
iruka jibbed the man. kakashi just looked over the file in his hand and smiled.  
"mah you know as well as i do that i cant read this"  
the ninja stated while waving the folder in the air a bit. iruka nodded before holding his hand out for the file, and was rather surprised when kakashi stuffed the file into his vest. now getting perturbed iruka asked.  
“what are you doing?”  
kakashi smiled before stating quite seriously.  
"i am ensuring that my student takes it easy after training. you had a rough morning, besides its your day off"  
snorting iruka countered.  
"ibiki isn’t going to like that excuse and you know it, so hand the file over"  
the anbu around the table watched the two bicker back and forth the chunin becoming more irate at each rebuttal the copy nin sent his way.  
"kakashi!"  
"iruka"  
frowning iruka ignored genma’s laughing and lunged over the table to try and reach for the folder hidden in the man's vest. all he got for his troubles is a gentle shove from kakashi that put the tired man back in his seat. kakashi leveled a look at the chunin.  
"see your tired"  
shaking his head iruka countered.  
"that’s beside the point. that’s important information"  
"i think it can wait an hour or two"  
"that’s cause your always late!"  
the teammates laughed, they of course knew the other side of kakashi, the one that was always on time to everything. iruka huffed, but sat back in his seat before he muttered.  
"i'll get that file"  
"im sure you'll try"  
kakashi acquiesced. scowling at the copy nin it was kurenai who interrupted the two men before they could start arguing again.  
"now boys, im sure we can reach a compromise, kakashi's right you need to take a rest after expending all your chakra like you did this morning"  
kakashi nodded triumphantly.  
"but iruka is also correct, those could be important documents to the safety of the village kakashi. a couple hours can change the course of a battle"  
kakashi frowned as iruka smiled at him. huffing the copy ninja said.  
"fine, i'll let you work on this crap when we get back to the apartment, but only for an hour or two"  
iruka nodded, he knew if he pushed himself he could have the thing translated in that amount of time. seeing the two reach an agreement, the team smiled. it wasn’t much longer before they all went their separate ways, iruka trying to grab the folder a couple times to the amusement of the anbu as kakashi easily avoided the attacks while reading his porn.

************

kakashi peered over his book, iruka had been going strong translating the new scroll for the last two hours, he had considered try to take the work away from the chunin numerous times, but was able to hold off until now. iruka's eyes were drooping and he kept rubbing them before going back to work. shaking his head kakashi stood up and walked over before holding out his hand. iruka looked up as kakashi as the man stood in front of him, his hand outstretched.  
"can i help you?"  
"scroll now"  
looking down to his work and then back up to the jounin he frowned.  
"but im not done"  
kakashi made a grabbing motion with his outstretched hand. sighing iruka rolled up the scroll and handed it over to the other man. he didn’t have the energy to fight with the man. kakashi put it back in his vest determined to not allow iruka to work on it again tonight. it was plain to see that iruka was tired, not only from their vigorous training session but also with reading over the scroll the last couple hours. going back to take his seat kakashi pulled his book back out and watched the chunin sitting opposite of him for a moment before saying.  
"you did well today"  
iruka blushed at the compliment, he still wasn’t used to accepting praise from people. he never thought he could get used to it.  
"thanks"  
"word of advice though"  
iruka nodded his head, he would take any knowledge the man who was more experienced could give him.  
"your going to have to fight one on one during the exam, that’s unavoidable. even you cant stay hidden in the tree's for three days and they wouldn’t pass you even if you could"  
iruka nodded, he knew he couldn’t just run and hide the entire time he was in the exam, they would expect to see a wide variety of skills in order to consider him for the rank of jounin. solemnly iruka admitted.  
"i just don’t want to hurt anyone...things have never gone well when i’ve fought back."  
kakashi smiled gently beneath his mask, iruka wasn’t looking at him though so he didn’t see it.  
"your opponents will be fully trained shinobi iruka, they can defend themselves and if they cant then they shouldn’t be giving the exam in the first place. your not attacking a fellow shinobi of our village to attack them, its a test. they expect you to fight."  
iruka nodded, it didn’t make him feel any better about possibly using some of his more dangerous techniques on a colleague. knowing that whatever he did would undoubtably get back to the council made iruka nervous. then there was the fact that whatever he did would be seen by other shinobi, with kakashi and his team watching him the entire time, he wouldn’t be able to take back whatever he showed them. iruka was pulled from his thoughts when kakashi asked.  
"are you going to ask ibiki for some time off to prepare for the test?"  
he knew it was a long shot, especially since new information seemed to be pouring into the interrogation office about wave. kakashi couldn’t help but try to direct the chunin towards a better outcome though. the more stressed the man was, the more exhausted he was the less chance of success. iruka shrugged before answering the man.  
"i don’t know, with the new information and everything going on. i don’t even know if he'd let me take time off right now, regardless of the reason."  
well at least the chunin was considering it.  
"you wont know until you try"  
smiling up to the jounin iruka nodded his head. the least he could do is ask, the worst that would happen is that ibiki would threaten him again. leaning back in his chair iruka relaxed in the comfortable silence between the two of them. their growing friendship had come as a surprise to the chunin. he'd never thought that the great copy nin would give him his valuable time besides when being ordered too. now that they had lived together for a while, they had just fallen into a routine with one another and it was nice to actually come home to someone. smiling iruka couldn’t believe that it all started with him being tortured by ibiki.  
the pair made dinner before continuing like they normally did, reading in silence except for the occasional question between them. it wasn’t long before iruka excused himself for bed and smiled when kakashi handed him the scroll he'd been translating. nodding his head at the jounin iruka and mayonaka headed off to bed.  
kakashi stayed up later than he normally did, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to the chunin living with him. he didn’t want to admit it but he was growing quite fond of the chunin, sure they were friends now, but a small part of him couldn’t help but love the way the chunin blushed at everything and refused to do harm to people. his kind nature drew kakashi to him like a moth to flame and it made the copy nin uncomfortable. he knew iruka would never go for a serious relationship, not since what mizuki did to him. the man hadn’t been in a relationship since and it was no secret why. he would just have to be ok with being the mans friend, he told himself. sighing kakashi followed his nightly routine and went to bed.

************

kakashi woke up with a start. a door had just slammed against the wall. kunai ready he sat up in bed, he sighed as he saw iruka hoping on one foot to try and get his pants on in a hurry. snorting at the man got iruka’s attention and the embarrassed nin fell over as he lost his balance. iruka frowned as he heard kakashi laughing at him from a crossed the hall.  
"shut up, im running late"  
"well you could always go without pants, that might be enough to keep ibiki away, for all his favoritism of gore and torture...nakedness really bothers him."  
iruka glared at him through the open doorway as he finally secured the errant piece of attire. snorting at the amused man, iruka said.  
"i highly doubt that, but thank you for your wisdom"  
kakashi smiled and watched as iruka headed to the door, it wasn’t long before he heard the chunin leave. leaning back against the headboard, kakashi vaguely wondered if he could get a day mission or if the hokage was still mad at him.


	26. anbu troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka has to brave asking for time off to train from ibiki. meanwhile kakashi and his team are needed on a mission, sending them out of konoha and leaving iruka to fend for himself against the torture expert. iruka comes across a few rumors around town and overall has a shitty time of things as far as anbu are concerned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day and a cliffhanger...dun dun dun. i know im evil, but i promise tomorrow's chapters will make up for this one. not to mention some very important things are about to happen. im sure some of you are going to be quite pleased with some of the loose ends being tied up. 
> 
> thanks again for supporting the story and i will see you all tomorrow. look for the chapters tomorrow afternoon, my mom has a doctors appointment.

iruka ended up being almost an hour late for work and based on the scowl on ibiki's face that lingered throughout the day, his boss was not impressed. iruka held off on asking for time off until it was nearly time for him to leave. summoning up his courage iruka went to the lower level to ask the intimidating man. he wasn’t surprised when he passed various members of anbu, he bowed politely before moving around them without a sound. they watched him, but didn’t respond to him. people had grown used to seeing the random chunin in the interrogations office, his appearances in the lower levels however still brought attention to himself. finally admitting defeat at being unable to find ibiki, iruka turned to the goat masked anbu he found and asked.  
"have you seen ibiki?"  
the nin nodded and pointed to a door across the way.  
"he's interrogating someone, i wouldn’t go in there if i were you"  
iruka got the message and nodded to the intimidating anbu, instead he shuffled the files in his arms and leaned against the opposite wall from the anbu. iruka bit his lip as he waited, he didn’t know this anbu, but he had nothing else to do while he waited for ibiki to get done with whatever it was he was doing. though his mind supplied him with plenty of ideas as to what the man might be doing in the room.  
"why a goat?"  
the anbu turned his head to face him and tilted his head.  
"your mask, why a goat?"  
iruka clarified for the confused man.  
"im fast on my feet and can climb up rocky inclines with little effort"  
iruka smiled to the man, it was nice of the anbu to answer him instead of just stare at him.  
"then you are aptly named"  
the anbu nodded his head before regarding the man before him.  
"your the one translating the missives?"  
iruka nodded before holding up the stack of papers he had  
"yeah, that would be me. my parents were from wave and brought me here as a child"  
to his surprise the anbu started shaking his head at him. frowning iruka asked.  
"something wrong?"  
"you shouldn’t be so open with those details."  
iruka was a little flustered by that. hardening his face, iruka said in a clipped tone.  
"i've been cleared by ibiki himself, i had no involvement with waves attack on konoha and i’ve lived here my entire life."  
the anbu shrugged like that meant little to him before stating  
"some would still question your loyalty, when all you've been translating turns out to be gibberish anyways"  
iruka frowned at the anbu, he was doing his best, it wasn’t his fault that wave had caught onto the fact that konoha was intercepting their ninja. before he could say anything back to the anbu the door opened startling iruka, turning he saw ibiki come out wiping his hands on a cloth, it was red. gulping the chunin approached the intimidating man.  
"i have the latest files"  
ibiki regarded him for a minute before stating  
"and? that wouldn’t be enough to bring you down to see me, you could have sent them with a messenger like you always do. so what brought you down here?"  
sighing iruka got right to the point of it, there was no point in trying to play innocent around ibiki.  
"i need some time off"  
ibiki raised a brow at him, he was rather surprised with how forward the chunin was being.  
"why?"  
he half expected the normally quick to anger man to retort that it wasn’t his business, but surprisingly iruka answered calmly.  
"im taking the jounin exam in less than two weeks"  
smirking ibiki stated.  
"aren’t we eager"  
iruka snorted catching both ibiki and the anbu guards attention.  
"not my choice, i was supposed to have like three months to practice, but the council moved up my exam date"  
"and why would they do that?"  
iruka shrugged, he had no doubt that ibiki could find out if he wanted to and he had no desire to share the information with the unknown anbu who had just ridiculed him.  
"how much time?"  
came the abrupt question from the stern man in front of him. iruka sighed, he knew ibiki wasn’t going to give him the entire time off but had silently hoped that the man might consider it.  
"how much can i have?"  
ibiki stared down at his nervous worker, he knew that iruka hated being around him and kinda enjoyed riling the man up. it wasn’t often that people spoke back to him.  
"you can have next week off, but you work the rest of this one"  
iruka nodded eagerly, that was more than he could have hoped for.   
"thank you"  
ibiki just shook his head.  
"make sure you pass the exam the first time, i wont be so forgiving if you have to take it again because you failed."  
with that ibiki walked off with the goat anbu as if iruka wasn’t worth his time anymore. sighing iruka tried to look on the bright side, at least he might have a chance at things if kakashi's group was able to train him hard next week.  
iruka quickly packed up his things and made his way back to the apartment, he was excited to tell kakashi about his time off to prepare for the exam. when he arrived home, he wasn’t too surprised to find the apartment empty. he knew kakashi did other things while he was away at work, but had silently hoped that the man would be there when he came home. shaking his head iruka had to tell himself to not get so attached, he was already relying on the man far too much. he'd allowed kakashi to see him at some of his worst times and instead of goading him on, the man had been kind to him. smiling iruka went into the kitchen and started to cook, he was going to make something special for dinner as a thank you to kakashi for everything he was doing for him. iruka was was nearly done with the food when he heard the front door open and close.  
"iruka?"  
"in the kitchen"  
he heard footsteps but poked his head out of the kitchen doorway to ward the man off.  
"no peeking"  
kakashi raised a brow but nodded his head as he took a step back. iruka nodded to him before disappearing once more into the kitchen. kakashi stood there a moment before venturing to his chair and rubbing mayonaka’s head.  
"what's he up too ne?"  
"no talking to her either"  
laughing kakashi informed the paranoid chunin.  
“no matter what you may think i cannot read minds iruka, she cant tell me what your up too.”  
there was a brief pause before the man called back.  
“no using my dog as a source of information, mind reading or otherwise.”  
kakashi preened a bit upon hearing iruka call mayonaka ‘his’. looking down to the ninken, kakashi whispered.  
“knew you’d grow on him.”  
the ninken wagged its tail back at the jounin.  
“no talking!”  
chuckling kakashi sat back in his chair and pet the ninken, not daring to speak again lest he anger the chunin in his kitchen. luckily the impatient nin didn’t have to wait long, iruka came out of the kitchen holding two plates, handing one to kakashi he took his seat and watched as kakashi examined his plate.   
"how'd you?"  
kakashi looked up from his plate in shock. he didn’t believe in coincidences, which meant iruka had to have done this on purpose. the chunin smiled back at him before admitting.   
"i may have asked someone in your team for advice"  
shaking his head kakashi dove into his favorite meal, letting the chunin know right away that it was delicious. iruka just blushed but continued to eat his own meal. once they were done, iruka took the plates back into the kitchen and cleaned up, refusing to allow kakashi to help. once he was done and back in his favorite chair kakashi asked him what it was all about. iruka was silent a moment before he managed to get out.  
"i just wanted to be able to thank you in some way for everything your doing for me"  
kakashi smiled, but was quick to tell the chunin.  
“you don’t need to do anything to thank me iruka, i’m happy to help.”  
much to his amusement what he said just made iruka blush more. before kakashi could try and make iruka turn any more redder he was interrupted by said chunin.  
"i talked with ibiki today-about taking some time off"  
"oh, and what did he say?"  
kakashi was curious to know if he would have to go have a ‘talk’ with ibiki again. he’d face iruka’s wrath day in and day out so long as he was able to help the man prepare for his coming test. ibiki be damned, he would make the man give iruka time off to prepare.  
"i can have all of next week off to prepare for the test, but i have to work the rest of this week like im scheduled."  
kakashi nodded, he was glad that ibiki was giving the man time to prepare.   
"that’s good, i'll let the others know when i see them tomorrow. we got a small mission to take care of so i might be gone for a couple days, but since your busy with work it wont effect our training."  
iruka nodded his head before giving into his curiousity.  
“is it dangerous?”  
seeing the concern in the mans eyes kakashi shook his head.  
"mostly recon, so long as we stay hidden no one should be the wiser"  
iruka smiled brightly at that, he had no doubt that kakashi's team could stay hidden. then an idea struck him.  
"do you know a goat?"  
blinking at the strange question, kakashi asked.  
"goat? iruka your going to have to explain a little more than that. if you mean the animal, yes i’ve met some goats in my travels. they tend to be rather annoying when one is trying to hide in hay."  
blushing a bit at the man’s explanation of his experience with random goats, iruka nodded his head before stating.  
"sorry, no...not the animal. i meant an anbu with a goats mask"  
smirking kakashi nodded his head.  
"ah, yeah i've seen him around headquarters, why?"  
iruka didn’t waste any time in saying.  
"he's an ass"  
kakashi laughed, most anbu had issues communicating with other people so it was no surprise that iruka might take their isolating ways as an insult.  
"mah, he probably didn’t understand why a chunin was wandering down in interrogation, im guessing you had to go below to find ibiki today"  
iruka nodded before saying.  
"it would have been nothing if he'd just ignored me like the majority of them do, but he seemed to think i needed a lesson in keeping my mouth shut"  
now kakashi was concerned, had the anbu tried to harm iruka?  
"what happened?"  
"i asked him about his mask, i realize now that i probably shouldn’t have, but he didn’t have to answer me, after he did he asked if i was the one translating all the scrolls. i of course told him yes and began to explain that my parents had lived in wave and brought me to konoha as a child. that’s when he just started shaking his head at me and when i asked what was wrong he said i shouldn’t say such things because people would question my loyalty regardless if ibiki had cleared me or not."  
kakashi sighed, unfortunately some of his brethren were a little stuck up when it came to themselves and interacting with ranks below them. with all the tension the wave attack had caused it wasn’t so surprising to kakashi that one of the other anbu would be irritated by allowing someone ‘from’ wave into their secret lair as it were. shaking his head kakashi told the chunin.  
"ignore him, chances are he's an old anbu who's stuck in the old ways."  
frowning iruka asked.  
"what do you mean?"  
smirking kakashi told the chunin.  
"after you’ve served for a while your given senior status. some people don’t bother worrying about it, like me and my team. while others strive for it thinking its some high and mighty position. in reality its just a title and means next to nothing. he's probably from before the third war and is some old fogey who’s stuck in the pomp and circumstance of respecting people and questioning the actions of others to such a high degree that his own mother could be a traitor."  
iruka laughed a little, kakashi always seemed to know what to say to cheer him up, its one of the reason's he loved the jounin. freezing at his train of thought iruka tried to reorganize his mind when kakashi called out to him in concern because of the chunin’s sudden tensing, the weird face iruka was making didn’t help the jounin to think nothing was wrong. shaking his head iruka smiled reassuringly to the jounin and said.  
“sorry, something at work just clicking into my head...one of those damned scrolls.”  
kakashi nodded his head not really believing the chunin but going along with his story anyways, if iruka wanted to talk about what was bothering him, he would.  
clearing his head, iruka couldn’t believe what his mind had lead him too. he loved kakashi? he couldn’t. he'd only really known the man for a month and half of that time was kakashi watching him be tortured. that did not count as a normal relationship, but then again none of his relationships were normal. deciding to think about it later when he was alone in his room iruka asked kakashi how his day had gone.  
the jounin of course went into a wild and outlandish tale of saving old ladies and reporting to the hokage on time to be briefed for his mission. which was actually true, but iruka of course didn’t know that. the jounin went on to say he had to brave the market place for some lunch with his teammates before going and training for a few hours. iruka just shook his head at kakashi's wild tale.  
the night drifted on with comfortable silence followed by bouts of talking to one another about this and that. like always iruka went to bed first, but unknown to kakashi, he did so this time so he could reflect on what was happening in his own head. iruka had a hard time falling to sleep that night, all the while questioning how he really felt about the jounin.

*********

morning came swift enough and with it a frantic iruka setting about getting ready to work, rushing out the door with mayonaka swift on his heals he never noticed kakashi sitting up in bed watching him.  
sighing kakashi leaned against the headboard. he hadn’t meant to watch iruka getting ready, but he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of the adorable chunin. kakashi knew he shouldn’t let his mind wander to things that would never be, shouldn’t let himself fantasize about being with the chunin in more than just a friendship. looking out the window kakashi sighed again, he wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. it had been a long time since he had last considered dating someone, ultimately he had pushed the person away to save both himself and them the heartbreak of the shinobi lifestyle when dealing with a man in anbu. he had no doubts that iruka understood what being an anbu meant, he'd asked enough questions and seen them while on duty to know they upheld the law of konoha above all else. but still he couldn’t help but wonder if it would work between the two of them, granted that was if he could get iruka to even consider it. kakashi was almost positive that the man was too badly damaged from mizuki's doing to have another relationship and trust his partner. not for the first time the jounin cursed mizuki for that, for taking that away from iruka. getting out of bed he let his mind drift to more pleasant things, like being able to help the man prepare for his jounin exam and then being about to look over the man in secrecy while he underwent the exam itself.

********

iruka stretched his back, hearing a couple pops he sighed before curling his form back around the scroll he was translating. he didn’t hear the door open, but the sound of mayonaka growling told him it was ibiki so he didn’t bother to look up.  
"hello ibiki"  
there was a brief silence as the man crossed the room before the man commented.  
"she really doesn’t like me does she?"  
"the feeling is mutual im afraid"  
iruka heard the man let out a bark of a laugh which startled the chunin into looking up to ibiki. straightening himself out iruka could help but apologize to the man, he hadn’t meant to say that.  
“ah...sorry i didn’t mean to say that.”  
ibiki gave him a stern expression before stating.  
"you wouldn’t have said it if you didn’t feel it, besides i don’t expect you to like me, i expect you to do your job"  
iruka nodded his head before choosing to change the subject before things got any more uncomfortable than they already were.  
“what can i do for you?”  
smirking ibiki pulled out a black scroll, iruka's eyes widened. those were anbu scrolls.  
"we might have fished this off of a new captive of ours and was wondering if you could decipher the gibberish written all over it"  
iruka nodded and took the scroll delicately before wetting his lips and asking.  
“is it safe?”  
looking up to the interrogations officer iruka was relieved when ibiki nodded.  
"they've already removed the booby traps on the scroll, your as safe as you can be holding information of that magnitude."  
iruka unrolled the scroll carefully and took in the writing, it was definitely wave and unlike the previous scrolls it wasn’t encoded, they had obviously entrusted this scroll with a high level nin and hadn’t expected the man or woman to be taken captive. looking up to ibiki the chunin nodded.  
"i'll have it done before i leave today"  
"good"  
ibiki walked back to the doorway he had entered from before turning around to see that iruka was already at work on the scroll. smiling he left the man to his work.

************

iruka struggled up the stairs, his back was killing him from leaning over his desk all day, mayonaka made it look so easy climbing up the three flights that he muttered.  
“show off”  
coming to the door iruka unlocked it and came in, he heard kakashi greet him and he called back to the ninja before removing his sandals and trudging into the living room.  
"well you look dead on your feet"  
"thanks"  
he muttered tiredly as he all but collapsed into his chair sighing at the new position made his back align at a new angle.  
"tough day i take it?"  
"yeah, they got a new wave ninja, don’t know where they found em but he had a anbu scroll on him, that’s what i got to decipher today"  
iruka saw kakashi's eye widen. anbu scrolls could be dangerous things.  
"they just let you open the thing?"  
iruka smirked before shaking his head.  
"no, ibiki had already taken care of the protections on it, he just turned it over to me for reading"  
relaxing again in his chair, kakashi was relieved to know that ibiki wasn’t actually trying to kill the chunin.   
"so what was in it?"  
"im afraid that’s classified information"  
iruka smirked at him, it wasn’t often iruka got to one up the jounin and he was going to enjoy it. kakashi snorted before stating.  
“i can always go in tomorrow and read your transcript.”  
pouting a little iruka told him.  
“it was an assault plan for some of the neighboring villages around konoha. they’re most likely trying to drive konoha to spread their shinobi forces out to protect the people in the villages thereby leaving fewer men to protect our main city.”  
kakashi's eye widened, it was a good plan but know that they knew about it they could do something to prepare.  
"did it say when they planned the assault?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"no, they keep leaving off the date, more than likely because their being cautious about the information getting out and spoiling their plans. the hokage already knows about it and has sent word to the leaders of the outlying villages that they should evacuate their people to safe ground."  
kakashi nodded, at least innocent people weren’t going to get hurt because of wave's desire to hurt konoha. smiling at the tired chunin kakashi asked.  
"tea?"  
"oh yes please"  
nodding his head kakashi prepared some tea for them and served it to the chunin before retaking his seat. they enjoyed their hot beverage in silence a moment before iruka asked.  
"so when do you leave for your mission?"  
"tomorrow morning, should only take a day or two"  
iruka nodded his head, he knew he could take care of himself just fine without kakashi around, but to be honest he was going to miss the other ninja. hiding his emotions iruka wished the man luck on his mission. they had a casual dinner together before going their separate ways.

********

iruka got up and got ready for work, knowing that kakashi was already gone, iruka sighed. he was becoming to attached to the man, he should know better by now, it never ended well for him. he'd just wind up getting hurt or hurting kakashi. shaking his head to clear his thoughts iruka finished getting ready and took off for the day.

**********

kakashi and his team were fully suited up and hiding from the enemy ninja's just observing what they did and said. it was rather boring, but it gave them time to talk to one another. there was no immediate threat around them so they could relax a little.  
"so how are things with iruka?"  
kakashi turned to look at genma and although the man couldn’t see it he frowned behind his mask.  
"fine"  
his clipped tone didn’t go unnoticed, it was kurenai who asked if something was wrong between the two. sighing kakashi shook his head.  
"no, we get along just fine-i just think we might be getting to attached to one another"  
the group looked to one another, they knew what that meant. kakashi was going to start pushing the chunin away in hopes of saving himself and iruka any turmoil. it was asuma who spoke up though.  
"are you sure? pushing him away might not be the right course of action here. even though he's stabilized it probably wouldn’t take much to throw him back into his old habits."  
kakashi knew that, that’s why it was so hard, if iruka grew too attached to him and something happened. iruka would be right back at square one and it would be all his fault. likewise if something happened to iruka, kakashi would be a mess. it was better they break the connection now while it was still young so that the chunin could learn to adapt on his own. he told his team this and although they could understand his reasoning, it was genma who stated.  
"you like him don’t you?"  
the other members froze, it was kinda an unspoken rule that they didn’t talk about each others love lives unless it was in a joking manner, but to say something like that wasn’t a normal occurrence in their group. raidou shook his head at genma who just shrugged his shoulders waiting for an answer. kakashi finally managed to say.  
"he's a good shinobi, a good friend"  
"that’s not what i asked"  
genma restated, frowning kakashi tried to glare at the man, but the mask just prevented it from being enforced. sighing kakashi nodded his head, he knew genma was the least likely of them to let something go and he still had another two days with the man cooped up in a small space. he might as well get it out in the open now to avoid being tortured with the same questions over and over again.  
"then you should tell him"  
again kakashi wished he could glare at his teammate, that always seemed to shut him up in the past.  
"no"  
"why not? are you afraid he'll say hes not interested? it’s not like you don’t already know he’s gay."  
sighing kakashi restated the obvious for his teammates.  
"he cant be interested in a relationship like that, not after mizuki"  
the others hadn’t considered that but it was a distinct possibility that iruka might never try to have another relationship for fear of being abused again. sighing genma waited a couple minutes before stating.  
"maybe he just needs the right person to show him not everyone is an abusive asshole"  
the others chuckled a little, genma was never one for tact. kakashi looked to his teammates. he still wasn’t sure about it, but he supposed the least he could do is let iruka decide for himself.  
"alright i'll talk to him, now will you shut up about it"  
genma shrugged before admitting.  
"probably not, but hey maybe its your lucky day"  
the others snorted at genma and got back to work observing their targets.

***********

iruka flopped onto his bed, he hadn’t even tried to cook dinner, he'd fed mayonaka and collapsed on his bed hoping to just fall into oblivion until morning. hours passed and his body just wouldn’t let him rest. turning his head he watched his ninken as she lay curled up on the bed asleep. reaching out he stroked her fur, which garnered her eyes opening to watch him for a minute or two.  
"he's only been gone a couple hours and i miss him-how pathetic am i"  
he let his head fall back to the bed and muffle out his talking to himself. eventually sleep claimed him.

**********

the next two days were rough for both parties. iruka had more work than ever before, ibiki's attempt to get as much done before iruka took off for a week.  
kakashi's group had to trail after their targets after something spooked them from their established camp. it was a slow but steady chase into a new area, before the ninja they were following finally settled down again. kakashi just hoped that the group stayed where they were for the rest of the time, he didn’t want to be late returning home. somehow he just knew that iruka wouldn’t take that well.

***********

leaving the interrogation office for the last time, iruka was actually looking forward to getting his ass handed to him by the group of anbu he'd come to think of as close friends. it was far better than being cooped up in the stuffy building all day with ibiki hovering over his shoulder every couple hours asking for reports. as iruka walked down the street he couldn’t help but notice something, people were whispering around him. frowning the chunin tried to listen in on what they were saying, but they'd quiet if he drew closer, deciding to use his ninja skills as that was what they were there for, he went down an ally and jumped up onto the roof of a neighboring building. sitting on the edge iruka was able to finally hear what the merchants had been saying behind his back.  
"he lives with hatake-san now"  
"no way hatake-san is as straight as they come"  
"its true though, why would hatake-san let a chunin stay with him if they weren’t-together"  
iruka frowned, more rumors. sighing he was about to jump down and continue on his way to the apartment when he froze.  
"they say he's from wave-can you believe it, a wave nin in our village and their not doing anything about it"  
iruka turned and re-situated himself on the roof., he had to know.  
"if he was really from wave, they would have arrested him right?"  
sighing iruka smiled, at least someone knew how things worked.  
"i heard he has amnesty for telling them about waves plans, betraying his village like that what scum, and to stick around when his own people attacked us."  
iruka stared at the sky, apparently the rumor mill was in full swing and he was the unlucky target. iruka didn’t know whether he should be angry that they would doubt his intention to the village after so many years or if he should feel honored that they wanted to protect kakashi so much. laughing a little iruka jumped to another roof and headed back to the apartment. mayonaka following him across the rooftops. it wasn’t more than a couple of minutes before he was safely inside the apartment. sliding down the closed door iruka let the tears escape, subtle shakes wracking his body. mayonaka came closer and licked at his face. smiling he reached out and drew her close to him.  
"good girl"  
she whined as her master held her tight to himself. she had of course heard what the other people had said about her master, it had made him upset which made her want to go back and bite them. but she knew she couldn’t leave him like this. her masters mate wanted her to watch him, so she stayed by his side and allowed him to cry into her fur. she would be sure to report this to pakkun, he could tell her masters mate what was wrong  
it took a while for iruka to pull himself together, but once he did he gathered his fallen things and put them back where they belonged, he went about the rest of the evening in silence. not even bothering to talk to mayonaka as he made dinner, ate and ventured to bed early. iruka lay there staring up at the ceiling unsure about what he should do.it was a while later that he nodded. he would speak to the hokage tomorrow, he'd fix this before kakashi ever got back. it was one thing for him to be ostracized from the village, he’d always been on the sidelines, but it was unacceptable for the village to taint kakashi because of him.

**********

tsunade was rather surprised when iruka paid her a visit early the next morning, his faithful ninken at his side. kakashi had told her all about his little experiment and she was glad to see that it seemed to be doing the chunin good.  
"good morning iruka"  
"hokage"  
the chunin bowed in the respectful manner he was known for. smirking tsunade asked.  
"what can i help you with today?"  
"i need to have my own place"  
she raised a brow at that, as far as she knew the two ninja had been getting along beautifully and she knew kakashi was gone which meant it wasn’t his fault for this sudden change in the chunin.  
"and why is that iruka?"  
holding himself confidently in front of the hokage, the chunin said.  
"its time, i've followed your rules, i've been working and taking care of myself, i need to start over"  
frowning a bit, she was curious as to what had brought about this epiphany when only a few days ago kakashi had told her that the chunin seemed happy with their arrangement.  
"did the brat do something before he left?"  
iruka smiled to her before shaking his head.  
"no kakashi's been great"  
"then why leave?"  
iruka frowned a bit before saying.  
"he needs his place back, i've been a guest long enough and to stay any longer would be intruding on his hospitality."  
she glanced through some paperwork as she listened to the man in front of her, she knew there were available apartments now, but she didn’t want iruka to start sliding backwards. she needed to find a way to keep the man with kakashi for a little while longer. deciding to play hardball with the chunin, she looked up to him and asked.  
"iruka may i ask a favor"  
"of course hokage-sama anything"  
smiling at the man the hokage said.  
"stay with kakashi"  
frowning the chunin was thoroughly confused.  
"why?"  
"he needs you more than you probably ever needed him"  
ok that just made his confusion worse. wanting to know why she would say something like that he asked her.  
“what do you mean? kakashi is fine.”  
tsunade shook her head before informing the man.  
"he's had a lot of loss in his life, just like you have. the fact that you two get along so well is a testament to your friendship and how much you have in common. he has a habit of pushing people away when they get too close to him, he fears losing people and that makes him raise his guard up to prevent himself from getting hurt. your involvement in his life recently has changed him iruka"  
shaking his head iruka said.  
"i don’t understand hokage, how could i change him?"  
daring to be so bold, the hokage informed the chunin in something she was sure not even kakashi was aware of.  
"he's no longer asking for s class missions by himself, he wants to do more missions with his team that are shorter and allow him to return home, i believe that is because he has someone to return home too."  
"were just friends-"  
the chunin stammered out, but the hokage raised her hand to silence him.  
"i know that iruka, but even friends can offer comfort to one another in trying times. there is no doubt in my mind that wave will try another attack, we will need kakashi and his team ready when that happens. the best way to be prepared for this attack is to have all our able bodied shinobi at tip top shape for the looming battle and if being with you means that he wont be as reckless than so bet it i'll order you both to be chained together"  
iruka smiled at her. he understood her concern for kakashi, he himself had felt dread when the man went away on missions. but to force them to live together seemed a bit much. iruka was about to try and argue with her when an anbu appeared in the room suddenly, bowing before the hokage and ignoring iruka’s presence. glancing from the anbu back to the chunin tsunade said.  
"im afraid you have my answer iruka, at least for now, now if you'll excuse me it seems i have some pressing matters to attend to"  
he nodded his head and left the hokage alone with the anbu. shutting the door behind him as he left. at first all iruka could do was stand in the middle of the hallway. the hokage wanted him to look after kakashi? he couldn’t help but shake his head, the lady must have had too much sake this morning. it was obvious kakashi could take care of himself quite well. iruka walked slowly out of the hokage’s tower, mayonaka by his side.  
“can you believe that girl? strange huh?”  
the dog let out a soft whuff. making iruka smile down at her.  
“yeah”  
walking back to the apartment iruka jumped as an anbu appeared before him. mayonaka tensed and let out a sharp bark, but iruka called out to her.  
“down girl...anbu-san.”  
the anbu nodded before asking.  
"umino iruka?"  
"yes?"  
this was feeling way too familiar to him.  
"you are to come with me"  
iruka didn’t bother to argue or to ask more questions, he knew that the anbu wouldn’t answer them. so instead iruka glanced down to mayonaka and said.  
“go home girl, wait for kakashi to get home alright. i’ll be along shortly im sure.”  
the dog whined at him, but a sharp nod to her sent the dog slowly trailing towards the apartment. sighing iruka looked back towards the anbu waiting for him and nodded. he allowed the man to take his arm and vanish them into thin air.


	27. camping trip from hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we get to find out why the anbu took iruka with him. kakashi and his team return from their mission and there's a threat to not only the village, but iruka. working together, iruka and the anbu do their best to protect their village from the threat at hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day. sorry for the delay. been a long day, turns out my mom's knee isn't the only issue. both her knee's are wrecked. bone on bone, no tissue in between the knee caps and her leg bones. so she's looking at possibly having knee replacement, but the big problem now is that she's a kidney transplant patient. so most of the drugs they give you for a knee replacement are bad or downright no-no's for a kidney transplant patient. rock and a hard place my friends.
> 
> that said, i'll be posting the second chapter for today right after this one, i wont make you wait since i know you'll be dying to know what happens next. i did promise you some action didn't i? well i have delivered. we've hit the 1500 hits mark which is astounding to me. so much love. thanks again for all the comments and kudos, it keeps me going.

kakashi and his team were tired, but not dead tired like many missions before this one. they were just relieved to be home. coming through the gates they made their way to see the hokage and give her the relevant information. they hadn’t made it more than 10 ft inside the walls when another anbu appeared before them as if signaled by their return.  
"wolf, you and your team are to come to the interrogation rooms immediately"  
nodding their heads they followed their comrade to the tall building. upon entering they found it oddly quiet, the man lead them down a hallway past where iruka worked, seeing the door open kakashi couldn’t help but look in, no iruka. sighing he followed after the anbu until they reached a doorway that the anbu nodded at. bowing to each other they waited for the man to leave before opening the door and entering as a collective force to face whatever was waiting on the other side. they were ready for anything that waited for them on the other side, as anbu they had to be.  
closing the door behind them they turned around and their eyes widened behind their masks. they were not prepared for the sight that greeted them. what they saw was iruka sitting in a chair, he was alone but not tied up like the last time he had been left in a room like this one. the chunin was slumped over a desk, his head resting on his arms.  
"iruka?"  
the man jumped, his body straightening out as he leaned back in the chair and came out of his thoughts to see kakashi and his team, masks still in place. he blinked at them a moment before asking in an embarrassed tone.  
"ah-what do i call you?"  
smiling behind his mask kakashi told the chunin.  
“our designations are what would be appropriate until we know what’s going on here. just call us by our designations, the designs on our masks. i’m wolf.”  
nodding his head, iruka got right down to the matter at hand.  
"right wolf, there's a little problem right now and so im under lock and key"  
the group of anbu frowned at the chunin. asuma was the one to ask.  
“what do you mean problem? and why are you in here?”  
he motioned to the room around them. iruka nodded his head before answering the man’s questions.  
"so i’m in here for my own safety as to the problem that caused all this...well one of your comrades got to me before he could, but mizuki staged a break out and about ten men are missing right now. they killed three guards during their escape and everyone is kinda assuming that he’s wanting to come say ‘hi’ to me."  
kakashi's fist tightened. that rat had tried to take iruka? no iruka had said he had been brought here right away. so the rat hadn’t had a chance to do anything. gritting his teeth kakashi asked.  
"where's ibiki?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"i don’t know, the anbu just put me in here and told me not to leave no matter what."  
the group nodded, ibiki must have wanted them to guard iruka while the other anbu searched for the missing prisoners.  
"how long have you been here?"  
looking to the clock in the corner iruka replied.  
"like five hours"  
"and no one's given you an update?"  
shaking his head iruka looked over the team before him, they were dirty but no one seemed to be hurt at all. he was relieved for that. the team turned around collectively when someone opened the door. at the sight of ibiki they relaxed. ibiki shooed them to the other side of the room so he could talk to all of them at once.  
"alright kids, im sure iruka already told you about mizuki's little stunt, we've rounded up six of the bastards but mizuki and three others managed to get into the forest before we could nab em."  
the group nodded, at least some of the escaped ninja had been caught, even if it wasn’t the one they were the most worried about.  
"what do you want us to do?"  
"you all get to have a slumber party"  
ibiki was smiling at the group who were now looking at him like he was nuts.  
"sorry to say this, but we only have one way to bring that traitor out of hiding. we have to give him what he wants-you"  
he pointed to iruka, the chunin just looked wide eyed at his boss.  
"what?"  
the anbu tensed beside iruka upon hearing ibiki’s claim.  
"were going to use you as bait to lure him and his little followers out of the forest"  
"no"  
kakashi's voice was firm, but ibiki didn’t pay him any mind as he continued with what was going to happen.  
"we've set up a place for you to make camp, wolfs team will be in the outlying area and look for signs of the traitors moving towards your direction, once they flush them out, they'll catch them and bring them back to konoha. all you have to do is stay out in the woods for a night or two"  
iruka dumbly nodded at his boss, it wasn’t a great plan but he was sure that mizuki was still mad enough at him to want to get revenge. somehow iruka figured he was worth more to the man than the chance of escaping the village. sighing iruka asked.  
"alright, when do we leave?"  
the anbu regarded their charge with concern, iruka was taking this far too well. ibiki didn’t play around as he said.  
"now, don’t talk to anyone, don’t stop anywhere, just go to the camp site."  
iruka nodded and stood from his chair. turning to the group he smiled and said sardonically.  
"welcome home?"  
they smirked at the chunin before ibiki told them to hurry up. following the chunin out of the interrogation room they made their way outside where they would once again be able to disappear in a swirl of leaves.

the camp that ibiki had set up was small, but had the things iruka would need for an couple days of camping in the woods. the anbu watched him as the chunin inspected his pack before putting it away. standing back up he smiled at them.  
"i guess i'll see you in a couple days?"  
"we'll be close by"  
raidou told the nervous chunin.. iruka nodded before asking.  
"anything i should or shouldn’t do?"  
"stay in the camp"  
came the firm reply. nodding his head iruka settled in for a couple nights of camping, alone.  
kakashi's team fanned out circling the area before meeting up at a distance. they couldn’t see iruka but they could sense his chakra. it was level and calm. looking to one another they couldn’t believe it.  
"so the bastard found a way to break out huh?"  
"appears that way, at least they got to iruka before he could"  
they nodded at that, they had no problem coming up with ideas of what the sick bastard would do to the chunin if he managed to get close enough to him. they took turns circling the circumference of the camping area. remaining silent and moving nothing as they darted though the forest. leaving no trace of their presence.  
two days passed with nothing happening, they were growing frustrated, beginning to wonder if mizuki and the other idiots had truly ran for it when the saw the first signs of trouble. a fire in the forest. the group wasn’t fooled. they knew it was meant to pull them away from iruka's camp,something they were not about to do.  
"are they really that stupid?"  
genma asked as he scratched the top of his head. it was kakashi who pointed out.  
"he did get defeated by naruto before he could even walk up tree's"  
"touche"  
smiling beneath they’re masks at the joke. they watched as the fire was suddenly snuffed out only for another to start on the opposite side of the forest.  
"what are they doing?"  
kurenai asked as they watched the fire’s smoke blaze up from the tree tops. the others shook their heads, there was no telling what their idiotic plan was. soon enough that fire too was snuffed out only for another one to start. whatever they were up too, the anbu were starting to get annoyed.  
"are they going to try and burn down the whole forest?"  
snorting asuma replied.  
"they have a long way to go if they are."  
just as another fire was put out explosions rang out, a circle of them connecting one fire to another causing a massive cloud of ash and dust to blanket the entire forest.  
"shit, make for the camp. it was meant to obscure their movements."  
they each darted towards where iruka's chakra signature was. it was no longer calm, iruka was panicking.

**************

iruka felt the ground tremor and bolted upright. he didn’t know if kakashi's team was behind it or if it was mizuki but he pulled a kunai out from beneath his bedding anyways. the chunin refused to be a sitting duck. deciding to get ready just in case he needed to move, iruka stored everything in his pack and threw it into the tent he had been living in. standing once more he surveyed the area. everything was quiet until darkness came rushing in. the giant wave of smoke and ash covered the forest in an instant. coughing iruka couldn’t see anything. the smoke and ash was too thick. turning this way and that, he tried to find a way out of the smoke, but jumping into a tree didn’t help as the ash cloud had risen above the tree tops, covering everything in darkness. jumping back down from the tree iruka tried to find his way back to the tent, but crashed into a tree instead, cursing he coughed as more dust entered his lungs. pulling his shift up over his mouth and nose, the chunin tried to figure out where he was in relation to his tent. he paused a moment later upon feeling an aura behind him, abandoning his efforts to cover his mouth and nose. iruka swiftly turned around only to avoid a kunai embedding in the tree he'd crashed into. ducking low he knew if he kept quiet the enemy wouldn’t be able to find him in the smoke. not as easily anyways.  
"come out come out wherever you are"  
iruka didn’t recognize the voice, it wasn’t mizuki which meant that it was one of the other prisoners. iruka turned to start to make his way away from the voice, when he was suddenly grabbed and pinned to a tree. a sneering face coming inches from his own. the man smiled at him before saying.  
"gotcha you little insect"  
it only took a moment for iruka to realize that the man in front of him wasn’t having any trouble breathing in the smoke. which meant that the smoke was made for the sole purpose of allowing this man to come and go as he pleased. where others would hack and cough, eventually losing consciousness to the lack of clean air, this man could walk through the ash as if it was nothing. fear seized iruka for a split second before he acted on it. swiping the kunai up he grimaced as his hand was pinned to the tree instead of making contact with his enemy's gut. the chunin was forced to drop the weapon as his arm was crushed in the man's grasp.  
"there we go, so you do listen. mizuki was always saying what a good whore you are"  
iruka's eyes widened. he started to struggle against the man, bringing his legs up to try and kick the offending man away. all it got him was a couple of punches to his gut for his trouble. coughing he had no choice but to let his body fall against the man in front of him as his lungs burned from bringing in all the smoke around him.  
"there we go, all nice and comfy"  
iruka felt the man lift him up over his shoulder, weekly he struggled to move himself off of the hard shoulder digging into his abused gut. breathing was getting harder with each lungful of compromised air and when the man twisted around sharply crashing iruka's head into the tree, that was the last thing iruka knew.

********

the anbu made it back to the camp, only to find iruka not there. cursing they searched around the area before kurenai whistled for them. coming to their teammates side, they couldn’t contain their disappointment at what they saw. blood marked a tree. kakashi didn’t rest a moment before summoning pakkun. the dog snorted at the cloud of smoke around him before looking up at kakashi. the anbu were safe behind the filters in their masks, but the ninken was still irritated for being summoned in these conditions. a finger pointing sharply towards a tree got pakkun to glance. the dog didn’t need to be told what to do when he caught sight of the blood. he saw his master in his gear and knew this was serious. turning around from his master pakkun was surprised to find that not only was there some blood on a tree, but also an horrible smell of rot. shaking his head and coming closer pakkun sniffed the blood and his eyes widened. turning to kakashi he spoke.  
"its the runts"  
kakashi's fists tightened. now they had no clue where the chunin was. knowing just how bad this was, pakkun told the anbu.  
"i think i can track em though, there’s a scent here...not the runts, someone else."  
looking to the pg kakashi asked how strong the scent was.  
"whoever took him smells like a sewer, shouldn’t be too hard to track him at all"  
that gave the anbu hope nodding his head kakashi told pakkun.  
“find him”  
the pug nodded his head and took off into the forest, the group of anbu swift on his heels.

************

iruka groaned, his head hurt, his stomach hurt and his lungs were burning. on top of that he was pretty sure he was strung up by his wrists. that got him to focus immediately. opening his eyes iruka could tell he was in a cave of some sort. the walls around him made up of nothing, but thick stone. there were traces of moss here and there, but for the most part it just looked like your average cave. it was with that thought that iruka realized that there were literally hundreds of caves around konoha, that didn’t give him much hope of someone finding him before-  
"hello ruru"  
him. looking to the right iruka couldn’t help but gasp as he saw the lean figure of his ex lover walking towards him. once mizuki was close enough he wrapped his arms around iruka's neck and drew closer to him. almost as if he was embracing the chunin. iruka tried to pull back, but being that he wasn’t even touching the floor the chunin didn’t have much choice on where his body went when mizuki pulled him closer.  
"now ruru, do you have any idea what i went through to get this opportunity-for us to talk"  
iruka wasn’t stupid he didn’t believe for a second that mizuki just wanted to talk. if that was the case he would have ‘talked’ with him all those time when iruka came to visit him in the prison. no this was something more wicked. iruka summoned all his courage before saying.  
"the anbu will find you"  
mizuki laughed back at him before saying.  
"anbu? and what makes you think they would send anbu after little ole me"  
iruka realized that mizuki didn’t realize who had been at iruka's camp, he must never have seen them interacting. smiling iruka couldn’t help, but laugh at his ex lover. mizuki frowned at the laughing chunin.  
"and whats so funny ruru, from where i stand you shouldn’t be this happy, unless that is your happy to see me"  
unable to stop himself, knowing that help had to be on the way and that his ex was going to do whatever he was going to do, iruka called out.  
"go to hell"  
mizuki's frown deepened. before he pushed away from the chunin, making iruka's body sway in the dim light from the small fire in the cave. iruka watched as mizuki went over to a small bag, pulling out a kunai the man brought it back and showed it to the hanging chunin.  
"do you know what im going to do with this?"  
barely giving the weapon a glance iruka said.  
"go ahead, even if you kill me, you wont get out of fire country alive"  
mizuki didn’t like the way things were going, iruka was supposed to fear him, to quiver before him and beg for mercy not be brave. slashing out at the chunin he relished as iruka cried out as the gash on his chest started to bleed. it wasn’t deep but then again it didn’t need to be deep to cause pain. smiling at the man he had trussed up before him, mizuki dragged the kunai over the chunin’s chest, never pushing down, never cutting just embracing the man's skin with the sharp edge of the knife. letting him feel just how close he was to death.  
"i could do such wonderful things with this, to your body and no one-no one is going to stop me"  
iruka shivered at the tone of voice. he remembered that tone of voice all to well. mizuki smiled up at him, he was glad that he could induce such a response from the chunin in front of him. taking the kunai away from iruka’s chest mizuki asked a simple question.  
"did you miss me ruru?"  
iruka stared straight into the cold eyes of mizuki and said.  
"no"  
"but you always came to visit me, don’t you remember?"  
iruka snorted before stating.  
"i came because i wanted to try and help you-i realize now that’s never going to happen. your just a twisted sick fuck who enjoys getting off on other's torture. you deserve to be locked away for the rest of your life."  
mizuki frowned for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. it was true, he did love seeing people writhing in pain as if they were experiencing the ultimate pleasure, it was such a high for him. deciding that he had waited long enough mizuki took the kunai and placed it on the chunin's chest again.  
"beg me"  
"no"  
the kunai dug into iruka's flesh, eliciting a hiss as blood began to fall from the sharp point piercing him.  
"beg me"  
"no"  
iruka grit out as the pressure increased. pulling down, mizuki dragged the blade along some unknown path, going around the man's nipple to come around his belly button and finally come to a stop just at the edge of his pants. iruka was panting, the cut again wasn’t deep but it hurt none the less. he watched in mild fascination as mizuki brought the blade back up to his chest, the man's cold eyes watched him, but when iruka didn’t react he frowned.  
"ruru im disappointed in you, i thought we would have a better time together, but if you want this all to end i guess i can be persuaded to start taking things seriously."  
pulling the kunai away, mizuki took a step back and twisted the kunai around so that the pointed edge of the blade facing him, his hand still on the handle he drove the solid metal object into iruka's side using it as some sort of brass knuckles to inflict more pain with his punch. iruka gasped as pain blossomed in his side, the kunai hilt being unforgiving steel. iruka barely had time to process the pain before he was hit again and again. iruka's body swung back and forth because of the relentless blows upon his body.  
"scream for me ruru"  
mizuki whispered in a sultry voice. iruka cried out in pain but he refused to scream, he refused to cry in front of mizuki. instead he focused on his anger. how could he have ever loved a man like this. how if he somehow managed to get down, he was going to fight back, he was going to stop mizuki. he was done feeling sorry for mizuki, the man didn’t deserve mercy.

*********

pakkun lead the anbu through the forest before stopping at the bottom of a steep slope up a small rocky mountain. turning to face the anbu, pakkun informed kakashi.  
"they went that way boss"  
kakashi stooped down to pick up the ninken before nodding to the anbu. they started to jump up the hillside, pakkun in kakashi's arms until they made it to level ground once more. kakashi let the ninken down and waited as the dog sniffed around again before darting to the left. the anbu followed.

**********

iruka's world was a haze of pain, he could idly feel someone kissing his neck, a hand was down the front of his pants, but the pain clouded his mind too much. iruka gasped as pleasure suddenly spiked from between his legs, clearing the fog just enough for iruka to realize what was happening. pulling away as much as he could iruka tried to twist his body away from the man fondling him against his will.  
"now ruru i was being nice i was even going to let you finish"  
iruka gritted his teeth as his sensitive organ was palmed by the man in front of him.  
"let go of me"  
mizuki didn’t seem to care what the chunin wanted, he just went back to sucking the man's neck into his mouth trying to make a wonderful hickey to leave on the mans body. jerking in mizuki's grasp iruka tried to think of something he could do to stop this. he refused to be used like this, to have his own body betray him because of this sick man. twisting his head to the left iruka smiled. mizuki was close enough, letting the man have better access to his throat by arching himself the other way the chunin in turn got better access to mizuki. while the man was distracted in his efforts to mark the chunins neck up with love bites, iruka quickly clamped his teeth down on the man's bare shoulder and bit as hard and as deep as he could. mizuki screamed at the sudden pain and tried to pull away but iruka refused to let go, clamping his mouth down. he would take a piece of the bastard with him before he let go. mizuki lashed out punching iruka in the kidney over and over until iruka could take no more and was forced to relinquish his hold of the man. even though it hurt it was worth it, mizuki was no longer touching him, instead the man was analyzing the blood on his hand after touching his shoulder. there were deep tears in the man’s shoulder where iruka’s teeth had torn into him. mizuki glared at iruka and the chunin took the time to spit out blood showing his bloody teeth from tearing into mizuki in the mockery of a smile.  
"you little shit"  
iruka’s head jerked back at the forceful blow, but it still couldn’t take the smile off of his face. instead the chunin just closed his bruised eye and watched as mizuki continued to curse as he tried to get a look at his wound. finally the man turned back around to face him.  
"your going to regret that"  
"hardly"  
iruka snorted back. frowning mizuki approached the chunin before yanking on something, it wasn’t until his world went dark that he realized that mizuki had pulled his hitae down to cover his eyes. it wasn’t a moment later before something just as hard was shoved into his mouth, forcing his jaw open at an odd and painful angle to prevent him from making noise.  
"since you wont scream for me, i might as well take away the option, you don’t seem to be happy to see me anymore, things would have gone a lot easier for you if you had decided to enjoy our time together. since that’s not going to be the case, let me take the time to show you how much of a mistake that was."  
the man's tone of voice grew darker with each word. feeling his body swing back and forth iruka couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen next. he couldn’t see, he couldn’t talk, all he had left was his ability to listen to what the man was doing around him. iruka heard some rustling before mizuki came back to stand in front of him.  
"when this is all over ruru, im gonna let those goons use you until the sun comes up"  
iruka stilled,he knew what the sick man meant, mizuki was just going to hand him over to be some fuck toy to some sick perverted traitors of the village.  
"and you wanna know the best part ruru, im gonna watch every fucking minute of it and when their finally done with you i'll consider putting you down like the dog you are"  
iruka was beginning to lose hope, he knew that kakashi wouldn’t stop looking for him, but by his estimate it had already been an hour if not more. what was taking the anbu so long? he didn’t have long to think about such things before pain began to be inflicted once more on his body to a new degree. it seemed he had managed to piss of mizuki if the strength of the blows raining down on him were anything to go by. grunting into the gag in his mouth the chunin had no choice but to take what was done to him and pray that the anbu would find him. soon.

************

going up the hillside the team stilled when pakkun halted in front of them. crouching down they peered through the night and saw three men at the mouth of the cave. smiling they knew they'd found the right place.  
"good work pakkun"  
kakashi whispered to the dog, his gloved hand coming to pat the top of the pugs head.  
"sure thing boss, call me if you need me"  
with that the pug disappeared leaving it to the squad of anbu to wrap things up. signaling to his team, kakashi watched as raidou, genma and asuma got into place while kurenai walked out into the middle of the field exposing herself to attack but also giving her teammates a chance to get behind the enemy nin as they were distracted by the woman.   
the guards took notice of the female anbu and tensed, they were about to try and fight the woman when they fell to the ground without having managed to make a move against kurenai. kakashi sprang out of the bushes and his team and him entered the cave, not sure what they would find.  
the cave had bends and turns which they had to navigate a couple of times before they started to hear things. namely a very confident mizuki taunting iruka.  
"and to think i used to think you were worth something"  
they winced at the harsh words, but mentally prepared themselves to take the man down, they could hear him moving about. they just wanted to make sure he was far enough away from the chunin before acting. peering around the cave they're eyes widened. iruka was suspended from the cave ceiling by his wrists, his eyes and mouth were both disabled and he had various cuts along his body, but the already deep bruising left little to the imagination. iruka had been being hit for a while now and hard by the looks of it. it wasn’t until they saw what mizuki was doing that they launched into action.  
the man once again held the kunai backwards and drove the handle in first into iruka's tender stomach causing the man to groan into the gag and his body to tense at the pain. smiling mizuki was about to strike again, when he suddenly found himself against the opposite wall. a group of anbu surrounding him. mizuki froze in fear at the sight of them.  
"how-how, why did they send you? im not worth your time?"  
the anbu regarded the slime in front of them. it was true he wasn’t worth their time and they wanted to turn their attention to iruka, but kakashi spoke clearly.  
"he is worth our time"  
with that kakashi bashed the man's head against the wall with more force than was necessary to render the man no longer a threat. once that was done they turned to iruka. as a team they moved as one, kakashi coming over to support the man's bruised frame, lifting up as asuma cut the rope holding iruka's hands above his head. genma and raidou help kakashi lower the man to the floor and kurenai began assessing the chunin, while asuma tore off the hitae and gag letting iruka see for the first time in an hour. the anbu saw the blackened eye and the blood around the chunin's mouth and began to worry that he might be bleeding internally, looking to kurenai as she focused her chakra to analyze the man's wounds they were shocked when iruka spoke for the first time since they arrived. having believed the man to be unconscious the anbu were shocked to hear.  
"please say you accidentally killed him"  
kakashi smiled at the man and moved into his range of sight, iruka smiled at him before wincing as kurenai pushed on his abdomen.  
"sorry, not allowed to use excessive force-but we could kick him a couple times if you'd like"  
genma offered. iruka smiled to the man, god he had missed them. kurenai pulled away with a slight frown on her face. her teammates didn’t like that.  
" he might be bleeding, im not sure-im no med nin and with the bruising that's present.-"  
she let the sentence hang and her team understood. they needed to get iruka back to konoha where a med nin could look after him. iruka took a shuddering breath which made the anbu around him hold their own breaths, it sounded so painful for the man to breath. kurenai reached out a gloved hand and wiped some blood from iruka's mouth.  
"its not bright so that’s good"  
the team nodded before iruka asked in confusion.  
"whats not bright?"  
"the blood"  
they saw the confusion on his face so kurenai explained.  
"you might be bleeding iruka... internally, the blood on your lips isn’t bright so it means we have time to transport you home without having to use jutsu's that could make your wounds worse."  
iruka just turned his head to look at her, he didn’t say anything at first before telling them.  
"its not my blood"  
the anbu looked at him confused as to how the blood inside iruka’s mouth wasn’t his own. they had to wait for him to continue and after another shuddering breath he did.  
"i bit him in his shoulder"  
the group of anbu were in shock, iruka had bit mizuki? getting up, raidou walked over and looked at mizuki carefully, pulling the mans shirt aside he saw the deep puncture wound left by iruka's teeth. smiling he turned back to his team and held his thumb up. they all sighed.  
"damn kid how hard did you tear into him?"  
iruka smiled at genma before answering.  
"he was touching me-so i showed him how if felt about that"  
they couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle. it was interrupted however when mizuki groaned, raidou frowned at he man and landed another solid punch to the man's temple before turning back to his team.  
"did raidou just hit him again"  
asked in a befuddled tone.  
"yep"  
genma told the chunin happily.  
"good, raidou hits hard"  
the anbu group smiled at the chunin’s apparent satisfaction of his kidnapper being in pain. they were as careful as they could be when they lifted iruka onto asuma's back, but iruka couldn’t hide his pain and cried out as his abused body was moved. once he was settled on asuma's back, they gathered up the rest of the prisoners and headed for home.  
iruka came in and out of consciousnesses as they traveled back, the movements of jumping through the tree’s becoming to much. the pain flaring with each landing and jump from branch to branch. the squad was relieved when they saw the gates to konoha. once again safe at home they made short work of returning the escaped prisoners over to ibiki with a well placed sealing tag. with the prisoners delivered for them the group made their way towards the hospital to deliver the chunin into the capable hands of the med nin.


	28. a punishment that heals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the conclusion of iruka's ordeal with mizuki. having been returned to konoha for treatment, kakashi and his team have to wait and see what the prognosis is for the chunin after his beating. mizuki uses every last ounce of power he has in the village to try and screw things up yet again and kakashi and iruka get to bond a bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day and oh my god is it a good one. we finally get to see what happens between iruka and mizuki. the physical battle might be over, but there are still plenty of ways to harm someone. who will come out on top? plus more cuteness between iruka and kakashi...i know you love it. 
> 
> see you guys tomorrow, keep up the wonderful comments. you guys make me laugh, i have to physically restrain myself from posting more cause of how awesome you are.

and that’s how a squad of anbu found themselves in the waiting room of the hospital, waiting to hear how iruka was doing after the med nin's carted him off for exams. the med nins hadn’t liked the look of the man's stomach, which only made the anbu more concerned. glancing to the clock kakashi adjusted himself again before looking up as the door came open. the doctor was a little surprised to see them, as it was rather rare to see anbu just milling about. shaking himself out of his stupor the man managed to call out.  
"umino, iruka"  
"hai"  
the group said as they stood as one, nodding his head they followed him. walking them down the hallway they stopped before a shut door.  
"he's resting now, we had to run a battery of tests to make sure there wasn’t a bleed going on, but he seems to have escaped that, he's got a concision and some broken ribs, but other than that and some deep bruising he'll be fine."  
the team nodded, glad to hear the iruka hadn’t been in serious danger of dying. the doctor watched them a moment before telling them.  
"you can go see him if you’d like, but keep it brief, he needs to rest"  
they bowed to the med nin before quietly entering the hospital room. iruka looked small in the large hospital bed, an iv in one hand and cranula in his nose to offer cleaner air for the chunin to breath. iruka was bare chested, an assortment of bandages covering his chest. taking up places around the room the anbu let out a collective sigh of relief. it was only a couple minutes later that iruka opened his eyes and smiled at them.  
"hey"  
"how do you feel?"  
iruka smirked a bit before telling them.  
"like roadkill, but i imagine that was the point"  
they nodded,they held back from telling iruka that they wanted to kill mizuki, they knew they couldn’t so there was no reason to inform iruka of what they had been willing to do for him. after the silence had taken over a while, iruka asked.  
"im guessing their back in jail?"  
kakashi shook his head before telling iruka.  
"their with ibiki"  
"oooh now their really in trouble"  
the chunin smiled brightly at them. the anbu smiled behind their masks at the chunin’s reaction to the news, before genma asked.  
“your on painkillers aren’t you?”  
"a lot of them"  
the group laughed, at least now they knew why the chunin was acting a little off.  
"you should get some rest"  
kurenai advised as she leaned against her lover. iruka shook his head at that before claiming quite boldly.  
“i’m not tired.”  
"give it a couple minutes, you'll crash"  
raidou promised the chunin. iruka smiled at them all before looking to kakashi and saying.  
"do i still have training tomorrow?"  
chuckling kakashi replied.  
"no, i think we can let you take a couple days off, i'll talk with the hokage about the incident, im sure she can extend your timeline for the exam given the circumstances"  
iruka smiled, his eyes drooping a bit, the group watched as iruka lost the battle against the painkillers a couple minutes later. sliding to sleep before their very eyes. they all took their leave, except for kakashi who stayed to watch over the chunin. his teammates promised to visit tomorrow to which the silver haired man nodded. taking a seat in the window the anbu watched iruka sleep and couldn’t help but allow his frayed nerves time to mend. he had thought that they would arrive too late, that mizuki would just kill the man and run, he thanked kami that the bastard was as sick and twisted as he was, to want to rant to iruka before finishing him off. it had saved the mans life.

*********

iruka groggily reached up, something was bothering his nose, pulling on it he finally got it away from his face only to have it placed back there a moment later. frowning in confusion iruka reached up again only to have his hand gently put back down by his side. a gentle voice telling the confused chunin.  
"leave it alone iruka, you need to leave that on"  
he knew that voice, his body instantly relaxed as he realized that he wasn’t alone, he was with kakashi. opening his squinted eyes iruka saw the anbu had replaced his anbu attire for his normal jounin outfit. smiling iruka said.  
“morning”  
"good morning to you too. now leave the oxygen alone alright"  
iruka nodded, he didn’t like the thing, but he understood its purpose. he felt really hazy though, looking to the other side he saw the iv and what he presumed was painkillers flowing into his body. frowning the chunin reached over to try and rip out the iv when kakashi grasped his hand again.  
"no your leaving that alone too"  
iruka glanced back at the man before shaking his head.  
"i want it out-i don’t like feeling like this-im all fuzzy"  
"well fuzzy is better than being pain, so it stays"  
iruka frowned at kakashi, but the man didn’t let go of his hand so he didn’t have much choice. relaxing into the bed iruka had to ask.  
"how much of an ass of myself did i make last night, i don’t remember much"  
smiling kakashi reassured the chunin.  
“you didn’t make an ass out of yourself. you informed us that you were not opposed to any one of those prisoners being harmed and then found it amusing that they weren’t locked up, but were instead with ibiki. i believe you said something like ‘oh now they’re really in trouble’.”  
iruka blushed a bit upon hearing that. kakashi smirked back at the embarrassed chunin. the pair fell into a companionable silence together, iruka drifting in and out of consciousnesses while kakashi read his book with one hand. it was an hour later that the rest of kakashi's team filed in, all wishing iruka a good morning. they didn’t say a word at seeing kakashi holding iruka's hand.  
"how do you feel?"  
"fuzzy, i wanted to take out the iv but someone wont let me"  
iruka yanked on his hand and wasn’t surprised when kakashi didn’t let go. kurenai chided iruka.  
"you have the pain medication for a reason, they wouldn’t be giving it to you unless you needed it."  
iruka pouted a moment before complaining.  
“i don’t like being hazy all the time...i’m sleepy all the time like this.”  
it was asuma who reassured the man.  
"its only for a couple days, then you'll be allowed to do whatever you want, just bare with the med nin's for a while longer."  
iruka sighed, but figured he wasn’t about to get any of them on his side of the argument. looking over to kakashi the chunin had to ask.  
"what about my exam?"  
kakashi nodded his head before informing the chunin what had happened while he slept.  
"i spoke with the hokage this morning. she doesn’t expect you to take the exams after what you’ve been through. she want’s you to succeed so she’s determined to give you time to heal and train some more. she's working on it"  
iruka nodded, he just hoped he got an extension, he didn’t know if he could go in with broken ribs. the group chatted for quite a while before a med nin came in to check iruka’s ribs and cuts. the nurse was quick to state.  
“i need to tend to his injuries so you need to wait outside.”  
iruka waved at the med nin with his free hand.  
“they can stay if they want, it doesn’t bother me.”  
the nurse nodded their head before approaching the chunin’s bedside. the med nin commented that he was lucky his ribs hadn’t punctured a lung and to be more careful from now on, iruka just smiled to the woman, he knew she didn’t know how he had gotten injured, so it wouldn’t do any good to correct her. once the med nin left iruka asked.  
"so whats the story?"  
"the truth actually, you were targeted by your old friend mizuki and he kidnapped you from the village and an anbu team was sent out to gather up the prisoners and happened across your situation"  
iruka nodded his head, at least he wasn’t going to have to stick to some outlandish lie they cooked up. the group stayed until lunch time before dispersing, leaving kakashi once again alone with iruka. to which the chunin told the man.  
"you should go home, its not like im going anywhere"  
kakashi shrugged before pulling out his book and sitting on the windowsill to read. iruka just shook his head, he knew he wouldn’t be able to convince kakashi to do anything without his consent so why bother arguing. it was late afternoon when the door opened and the hokage herself came in, iruka tried to straighten up, but ended up hissing in pain as it jarred his broken ribs.  
"don’t bother trying to move iruka, your only going to make things worse if you do."  
the hokage told the man as she came to him and checked out his healing ribs. she nodded her head before telling him.  
“you need to take it easy for a while, let those heal up properly.”  
the chunin nodded his head to the woman. assured that the chunin was at least somewhat listening to her, she went on to say.  
"i came to tell you the councils decision about your extension. they will allow you an extra week to prepare or heal rather before the exam, but wished me to express that they are less than pleased by the delay, craggy old geezers"  
iruka smiled at the hokage, she was a kind woman even if she was super strong with an affinity towards drinking to much and had a temper, one must never forget that.  
"thank you hokage-sama"  
she nodded before motioning kakashi to walk with her. kakashi followed before twisting around to point at iruka.  
“stay”  
iruka glared at the retreating form of the copy nin. coming out into the hallway, the hokage sighed before rubbing her pinched up face.  
"hokage?"  
kakashi questioned.  
"its nothing, he’s doing well all things considered. i just thought you should know that iruka tried to get an apartment on his own, for the sake of not burdening you any longer. i convinced him to stay and after this little incident im relieved that he'll be somewhere where someone can watch him so he doesn’t over do it while his ribs heal. i managed to mend the cracks, but their still fragile. make sure he takes it easy for a couple more days, he'll be discharged tonight since i know you'll take good care of him. any signs of worsening condition and you drag his ass right back here understood"  
kakashi nodded, he knew what to look for.  
"good, the only other matter we have is about mizuki, we of course have the proof that he instigated the attacks on the guards and lead the others out, but if iruka doesn’t testify against him no other charges for kidnapping or attempted murder can be placed on him. no matter if we have your teams reports or not, if the victim chooses to drop the case. its over."  
kakashi understood, she wanted him to convince iruka to testify against his old lover. something they both knew he had refused to do in the past. nodding to him she left kakashi to do as she had asked. reentering the room, kakashi smiled at the sight of iruka laying asleep. the pain med's they had been giving him really threw the chunin for a loop. kakashi sat once more on the windowsill and contemplated how he was going to go about convincing iruka to testify against the rat mizuki.

a couple hours later kakashi was escorting a very slow moving iruka back to his apartment. when they got to the staircase kakashi suggested.  
“i could just teleport us inside.”  
iruka allowed it after one look at the stairs before him.   
appearing in the apartment iruka smiled as mayonaka ran to greet him. the chunin couldn’t reach down to pat her on the head, but spoke to her as he made his way to his chair.  
"were you a good girl?"  
"she behaved herself wonderfully, i had my team stop by and check on her while i was with you at the hospital. she was pretty excited to see them."  
smiling to kakashi, iruka let the nin help him to sit in his chair before relaxing in the new position. his body was so stiff from the abuse it had taken. kakashi quickly asked.  
“do you want anything?”  
the chunin shook his head, happy to just be relaxing in someplace other than the hospital. kakashi watched him a moment longer before he took his own seat a crossed the room. kakashi read his book as iruka relaxed. the pair just enjoyed one another’s company for quite a while, before kakashi made tea. soon after the jounin made them dinner as well. once they were done eating kakashi suggested to the sore chunin.  
“maybe a bath would help?”  
iruka glanced to the jounin before sighing and nodding.  
“yeah it might...”  
iruka was slow to get up, but once he had managed to get to his feet he found kakashi standing as well. smirking to the jounin, iruka said.  
“im fine.”  
kakashi nodded his head, but still proceeded to help the man down the hallway. when the pair stood before the doorway to the bathroom the jounin cheekily asked.  
“do you need any help?”  
a blushing iruka was quick to say.  
“no, go read your damn book.”  
chuckling to himself, kakashi slowly made his way back into the living to do just that.

iruka soaked for quite a while just enjoying the heat seeping into his sore body. he had to admit that mizuki had managed to do quite the number on him, he was only thankful that kakashi and his team were able to get there in time before anything worse could of happened. the chunin shivered in the warm water as he remembered that mizuki had been planning to let his thugs rape him. letting his mind wander away from the horrible memory he couldn’t help but blush when he remembered kakashi holding his hand in the hospital. his hand had been warm and gentle despite being battle worn. leaning his head back , iruka let his hands wander over his body, to each bruise and scrape before coming up to land on the dark mark that mizuki had left on his neck. his mark. letting his fingers trail around the bruise iruka couldn’t help but begin to wonder what it would be like to let kakashi do the same thing to him, eyes bolting open he stopped his trailing fingers and gasped. how could he think like that, it wasn’t right of him to mar the image of such a great man. to taint him with himself. lowering his gaze he let his fingers trail through the warm water, making ripples through the once calm surface. that seemed to be all he did, cause ripples in a perfect design. shaking himself from his thoughts, iruka brought himself back to the real problem. he had a week. one week to heal up and get ready for his test. with chakra he’d manage to heal his ribs in that time since the med nin’s and the hokage had already done the majority of the work for him. still he didn’t look forward to having to go back to the intense training regime kakashi and his team had been working him through. a part of him couldn’t help but wonder if it was all a waste of time. was he really cut out to be a jounin? iruka didn’t think so. glancing to his fingers iruka frowned, he was pruney. time to get out.  
iruka leaned forward wincing at the action before finally grasping the plug for the bathtub and letting the water begin to drain. standing up he got out of the rapidly lowering water and wrapped a towel around himself to dry off with. once he had managed to dry himself off the chunin changed into a pair of loose lounge pants that wouldn’t be too tight around his bruised stomach. he had been going shirtless for the last couple days mostly because he was still in the hospital and they were constantly checking his healing chest. now that he was back at the apartment he found that it was more comfortable then allowing fabric to rub up against his tender skin. leaving the bathroom he made his way to the living room where he found kakashi apparently in the midst of a staring contest with pakkun. smiling iruka interrupted them.  
"did i miss something?"  
both of them jolted and turned to look at the chunin. it was pakkun who spoke first.  
"was just talking to the boss for a bit, glad to see your alright runt"  
iruka smiled at the nickname the dog had granted him. tentatively sitting into his chair iruka scratched mayonaka's ears before asking why.  
“so what brings you here today pakkun?”  
the dog glanced from iruka to kakashi before snorting. iruka looked from the dog to the now nervous jounin and frowned. the jounin finally fessed up.  
"mah i might have been summoned to see ibiki and thought you'd like the company while im away"  
iruka wasn’t an idiot he knew that kakashi just wanted to make sure that he was being watched. frowning at the man he called him out on it.  
"really cause it looks to me like your assigning your ninken to be my babysitter. on top of that have you forgotten the last one you sent to watch me?"  
iruka pointed to mayonaka who perked her ears up at being pointed at. kakashi winced, ok so iruka saw right through him. so it was time to pull out all the stops. looking at the frowning chunin, kakashi said.  
"please?"  
iruka sighed before nodding his head to kakashi's request, before adding in.  
"you better get me some ramen tomorrow"  
"deal"  
smiling the nin disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving the chunin alone with a talking ninken and a non talking ninken. looking to pakkun iruka was shocked when the dog spoke up.  
"so have you two decided to mate yet?"  
well shit, he was going to kill kakashi as soon as the man got back. figures kakashi would leave him to deal with something like this.

***********

standing before ibiki, kakashi waited for the man to tell him why he had summoned him at this late hour. it didn’t take long for ibiki to get around to it. once the man had pushed some papers away he gave the man his undivided attention.  
"we have a problem"  
tilting his head to the side kakashi questioned.  
"and whats that? don’t tell me the rat is actually giving you trouble"  
ibiki snorted before clarifying.  
"he's decided to testify against iruka"  
blinking kakashi stammered.  
"excuse me?"  
ibiki nodded his head.  
"he claims he has information about iruka making plans with wave"  
scowling at the interrogations officer kakashi yelled out.  
"that’s bullshit!"  
ibiki nodded, by now he'd come to know the chunin pretty well regardless of iruka fearing him from their previous time together. it was obvious that iruka was loyal to konoha.  
"unfortunately the council decided to hear him out"  
kakashi's eye widened. the council had gotten involved with low class scum like mizuki?  
"they want to have an inquisition where an unnamed party will get all the information from both iruka and mizuki-they want to know everything that went on between the two of them and any possible connection iruka may have to wave."  
kakashi cursed, that damn rat was trying to save himself by aligning himself with the one group of people who he knew would jump at the bit to see iruka fall.  
"what can we do?"  
the jounin asked. ibiki shook his head before stating.  
"iruka needs to agree to counter testify against mizuki about not only this incident but the previous ones. he has to tell them everything that happened before mizuki lets his side of the story be told. if were lucky they might actually look in their heads...if they don’t its going to be a case of traitor said vs orochimaru’s student said. neither of which are going to look good to the council.”  
kakashi nodded, this wasn’t going to be easy, but with some convincing kakashi was sure he could get iruka to allow the representative to get all the information they required to prove the chunin once again as innocent. no matter how hard the memories were for the chunin, iruka surely wouldn’t allow mizuki to win, not now.  
"i'll talk to iruka"  
kakashi turned to leave when ibiki called out his name.  
"they want to see him tomorrow afternoon, if you have any hopes of keeping that man out of prison, he had better be at that office first thing in the morning. he's going to need to beat mizuki's side of things"  
nodding his head kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke prepared to have an all out war against the chunin if he had to, he had to make him see reason when testifying against mizuki.

***********

appearing outside his front door kakashi quickly unlocked it and entered, locking the door behind him and toeing off his sandals he frowned. it was a little too quiet for his liking, especially with pakkun around. coming into the living room the jounin smiled. iruka must have moved himself to the couch because he lay asleep one hand draped off the couch to lay against mayonaka while the other lay in his lap where pakkun was laying curled up. kakashi’s heart ached for having to wake the man and tell him what was going on, but he needed to prepare the man as much as possible. kneeling down kakashi wasn’t surprised when mayonaka and pakkun both woke up.  
"iruka"  
he reached out and gently touched the man's shoulder. iruka groaned but opened his eyes and smiled at the sight of him. kakashi felt his chest tighten.  
"iruka, we have something we have to talk about"  
iruka took in the mans' serious tone and nodded, he allowed kakashi to help him sit up before continuing.  
"mizuki is trying to testify against you- he told the jailers that he had information about you working with wave"  
iruka was frozen for a moment, he wasn’t quite sure what he was hearing until it finally filtered through his sluggish brain.  
"iruka you have to testify against him, tomorrow or else they will arrest you and take this to trial which could take months"  
iruka vaguely felt himself nod, but he was feeling detached from his body, like it wasn’t happening to him. mizuki had done this? not only was he willing to beat him, have him raped and kill him but now this?  
"iruka, do you understand?"  
kakashi tried to understand what iruka was thinking, but the man was a blank slate, no emotion crossed his face as he processed the information. he was about to try and touch the man when iruka spoke.  
"why-why would he do that?"  
sighing kakashi tried to make iruka see reason.  
"he's angry that he failed, he's trying to see you fall to the same level as himself."  
iruka looked into the eye of kakashi, all he saw was concern for himself, kakashi was scared for him. iruka wanted to reassure the man, but he didn’t know how too.  
"alright"  
kakashi smiled, he wanted to make sure he had heard the chunin correctly.  
"you'll testify?"  
iruka nodded slowly before backing up his decision.  
"yeah, i’ll testify."  
the chunin felt kakashi hug him as gently as he could so as to not cause the recovering chunin pain and it brought a smile to iruka's face. he was more used to people pushing a finger into an open wound than embracing him keeping his wounds in mind. iruka wrapped his arms around kakashi and embraced the nin back. he'd never hugged kakashi like this before, sure he'd let the man hold him when he had his breakdown, but that had been entirely different situation. unable to stop himself iruka burrowed his head in the nins neck and muttered.  
"stay with me"  
kakashi felt the man bury his head in his neck and was mildly startled that iruka was being so forward, but when iruka asked that of him. all he could do was nod against the form he was holding. they stayed this way, wrapped around each other for a couple minutes just enjoying the contact shared between them. finally iruka pulled away, and kakashi let him go. iruka refused to meet his gaze while he said that he was going to head to bed.   
"alright, i'll wake you when we need to get ready to leave"  
iruka nodded and bid pakkun goodnight before calling mayonaka to follow him. pakkun waited for iruka to be out of the room before stating.  
"you shouldn’t let that one go"  
the ninken didn’t wait for a response, simply disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving kakashi alone seated on the floor in front of the couch. kakashi could still feel the warmth from iruka's body, smiling the jounin got up and went to bed himself. tomorrow was going to be one of the longest days in his life he was sure.

*********

the inquisition lasted all day, the council and their representatives were shocked to see that iruka had not only come to the proceedings, but come early to speak with them. even more shocking was when he didn’t come alone but with kakashi, asuma, genma, kurenai and raidou as his entourage. the latter members of jounin and anbu squads speaking on his behalf before the council. the representatives called everything to order and had iruka sit in a chair where they explained that they had chosen to use a yamanaka to get to the heart of things and to speed the proceedings up. having one’s mind sifted through was no easy task, but the clan was notorious for being extremely thorough. the young woman was going to search for memories between him and mizuki, that way there could be no attempts at lying to the council. the younger woman was fierce as she glared at him and mizuki. it was obvious she wasn’t taking anyone's side.  
iruka didn’t know how long he was lost in the see of memories, all he knew was when it was over he was left crying on the chair only to be collected by kakashi and led back to the seating area. they watched as mizuki was put through the same thing, the only difference being the man wasn’t left crying at the end. once she was done with him she motioned the anbu guards to hall the prisoner back to the seating area and approached the representatives and quietly began to speak with them. now they had to wait for the verdict.  
iruka was growing tired, his body ached terribly and all he wanted was to curl up on his bed with mayonaka and be warm and safe again in kakashi's apartment.   
after what seemed like an eternity the woman turned around and left the building leaving it to the representatives to decided the punishments for them both. tsunade was seated at the hokage desk waiting for the representatives to speak their decision and silently praying that she wouldn’t be asked to condemn the teacher who had grown on so many people. she glanced over to the seating area and withheld the smile she wanted to show, iruka was leaning against kakashi, the latter had his arm around the chunin. the entire room focused at once on the representative who stood to read the verdict.  
"it is the decision of this grand council that the person known as umino iruka is innocent of all charges laid against him by the person known as tashimoto mizuki."  
the group of anbu sighed in relief.  
"it is further decided by this council that one tashimoto mizuki be reprimanded for care by the correctional facility for disbanded shinobi for the rest of his natural life for crimes against the village of konoha and its inhabitants there in."  
mizuki instantly tried to struggle against the anbu holding him, but they held firm against the weaker man. unperturbed by the man’s attempts to interrupt the proceedings, the representative continued.  
"this council also see's fit to relinquish any titles or awards that tashimoto mizuki has accumulated over his span of shinobi career, his name shall be struck from the konoha record books and shamed forever more for his actions against the village of konoha and its people."  
iruka couldn’t hold back the tears as he listened as his freedom was announced and mizuki's was taken away permanently. the chunin hadn’t bothered to spare a glance to his ex lover as his fate was read, instead choosing to lean into kakashi as the representative continued.  
"this grand council would also like to enforce reparations to one umino iruka through the tashimoto's estate, tashimoto mizuki being the last of his lineage has no further claim to any titles or bonds within the village and all such inheritance shall be transferred to umino iruka as penance for his actions"  
iruka's head jolted up, had he just heard right, they were making mizuki's family estate his? he was about to call out to the man talking, to tell him it wasn’t necessary when kakashi put his hand around his mouth and shook his head to the chunin. telling him to keep quiet. leaning back against the man iruka nodded his head and kakashi removed his hand. once the proceedings were done it was the councils turn to speak.  
"this council would like to ask if umino iruka intends to continue his pursuit of the jounin rank"  
by the man’s tone of voice it was clear what answer he wanted, but knowing that they were asking him to quit just made iruka more determined to try. iruka spoke clearly to the room.  
"yes, i want to take the exam as soon as i am healed"  
even the council couldn’t completely contain their displeasure upon hearing the news. they nodded at the chunin's request anyways as they had no course of action to deny the man. the man speaking did choose to remind the chunin.  
"you will uphold your part of the deal then and take the test at the end of the next week"  
iruka nodded his head. he wasn’t foolish enough to believe that they would give him anymore time than that.  
"you are dismissed"  
with that everyone filed out of the room. the team surrounded iruka and congratulated him, now not even the council could call his loyalty into question again against wave unless new evidence was brought forth and the likelihood of that happening was about as likely as the hokage giving up sake.  
"c'mon lets go celebrate"  
genma called out, iruka smiled at the energetic man and nodded his support to the idea. they ended up finding a nice restaurant and ordering a round of sake before their meals arrived. it was genma who prodded iruka to drink.  
"c'mon i wanna see you drunk"  
iruka snorted at the man before saying.  
"that’s not going to happen, the last thing i want is to be throwing up with my ribs like this"  
genma pouted but nodded his head, he could concede to iruka's point. that would hurt like a bitch.  
iruka stuck to one cup of sake before having tea with his meal. the group asked when iruka wanted to try and train next.  
“i think i’ll be good in two days, i have an appointment to see the hokage. i think she’s taking this whole thing as a personal challenge or something. she wants to make sure my ribs are healed so i can take the test.”  
the anbu smirked at the chunin, they had no doubt that tsunade was pissed at all the things the council had tried to prevent the man from earning what was rightfully his.   
"tell her to step up the healing mojo"  
genma called out, raidou just shook his head and pulled genma away from the sake. smirking at genma who iruka could tell was a little tipsy at that point, the chunin said.  
"i'll make sure to let her know you think she's not doing enough"  
that sobered the man enough for him to whine at the chunin. the others laughed at iruka's threat, they all knew how tsunade would take a comment like that. her temper would surely be unleashed onto genma. the group visited for a while as they ate before paying their bill the group went their separate ways. raidou dragging an obviously inebriated genma home.


	29. new accomodations, leaches, and snake food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka and kakashi come to an agreement about their living arrangements. the two end up getting closer than either of them initially intended and genma learns an important lesson about snakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day, sorry for the late post. were having a garage sale this friday and god has it taken a lot of work to get ready. life in general has a way of getting in the way doesn't it? anyways, hope you guys enjoy the first chapter for today and i'll be posting the second one in just a few minutes.
> 
> thanks to all the people reading, commenting and kudoing? that's a word, i think. keep spreading the love.

entering their apartment, iruka smiled as mayonaka greeted them excitedly.  
"hey girl, guess what im here to stay"  
she thumped her tail repeatedly on the ground in response. kakashi prodded the man into the living room. the two lounged about for the majority of the day. kakashi only leaving for a couple minutes around dinner time to retrieve ramen for them both, much to iruka's delight. they enjoyed their ramen before talking about how the trial had gone, kakashi commended iruka for sticking to it even though it had to be painful for him to go through those memories again. iruka blushed at the compliment.  
"thanks, i still cant believe their just giving me the estate"  
kakashi shrugged and said.  
"its not like he's going to use it, or deserves it for that matter. have you been there before?"  
although the tashimoto clan was small and not considered powerful by any means,they did have a smaller estate within the walls of konoha.  
"when i was a kid, i don’t know how it is now though, with mizuki in prison i doubt its been well looked after. i don’t have much use for it anyways."  
"sell it"  
came the quick reply from the jounin. iruka nodded his head.  
"i suppose that’s an option"  
kakashi nodded his head, he wasn’t about to make the chunin live in the same estate as his ex lover. besides he liked the chunin right where he was. after pakkun had told him how the chunin had reacted to his questions he was quite intrigued to spend some more time getting closer with iruka.  
"i think im gonna head to bed, i have that appointment with tsunade-sama in the morning"  
"would you mind if i went with you?"  
iruka stared a him a moment before shaking his head.  
"no, but im sure its going to be rather boring, she's just gonna poke at my ribs a bit."  
kakashi waved him off and told him to sleep well. iruka nodded and headed down the hallway.

*********

kakashi was woken by a cold nose rubbing against his arm, instantly awake he looked down to see mayonaka. looking across the hall he could see the chunin tossing and turning in his sleep. getting out of bed kakashi made his way across the hall.   
"good girl "  
he patted the ninken’s head and knelt beside the chunin's bed. the man was twisting around in the blanket which had to be murder on his chest. reaching out he gently shook the mans shoulder to try and wake him from the nightmare. kakashi frowned when iruka groaned but didn’t wake. shaking him a little harder still didn’t get a response. deciding to do one last ditch attempt he climbed over the edge of the bed, sitting beside the twisting man and gathered the chunin up into his lap. brushing the mans hair back he spoke calmly to the chunin.  
"sssh its alright iruka, your safe. your in the apartment, im here"  
kakashi continued to whisper soothing words to the man and it seemed to do the trick, iruka slowly calmed in his lap, relaxing against him. smiling to himself kakashi carded his fingers through the brown locks that were normally strictly contained by a hair band. the jounin figured he could enjoy himself a little longer before returning to his own bed.  
iruka could hear soothing words, he felt someone playing with his hair, but unlike when that normally happened this time it wasn’t painful. the fingers weren’t yanking or pulling at his hair, they were just carding through it. allowing his eyes to open iruka was a little surprised to find himself up against kakashi's chest as the man held him to himself. blushing the chunin didn’t dare move lest kakashi find out he was awake.  
it wasn’t much longer and iruka felt kakashi shift, closing his eyes to feign sleep iruka felt as kakashi settled him back into the blankets. he was about to let the man leave when he heard kakashi speak to mayonaka.  
"i shouldn’t have done that huh girl, he probably wouldn’t like me touching him like that. i just couldn’t help myself... if he were awake i’d be hearing a mouthful about now im sure, but it seemed to stop his nightmare at least."  
iruka felt kakashi's weight shift as the jounin moved to get off the bed, without a second thought the chuni’s body reacted his arm coming out of the covers for his hand to grasp kakashi's arm as the nin turned away from him. iruka felt kakashi tense, but kept his eyes closed as he mumbled.  
"you can stay"  
kakashi looked down at the hand wrapped around his wrist, he had thought that the chunin was asleep and although his eyes were closed the jounin could now tell that iruka wasn’t sleeping. kakashi inwardly cursed himself, when iruka spoke up. hearing those three words kakashi didn’t know how to react. it was a minute later that the chunin's hand let go of his wrist to retreat back into the blankets.  
iruka was sure that kakashi was going to bolt, that he had misinterpreted what the man had meant when he spoke to mayonaka. releasing the mans wrist and pulling his arm back under the covers, iruka waited to hear kakashi leave. his eyes opened halfway and a smile came to his face when the bed dipped again at the sudden addition. he watched as kakashi got comfortable, making sure there was space between them to not crowd the chunin. iruka just chuckled a little, gaining kakashi's attention.  
"i promise not to bite you"  
kakashi smiled remembering how iruka had lashed out at mizuki touching him. laying on his side kakashi faced the chunin. the pair stared at each other a moment before kakashi told the chunin.  
"go back to sleep we have a little while before we have to get up"  
iruka nodded and snuggled under the covers much to kakashi's amusement. laying back kakashi couldn’t believe what had just happened, iruka had actually invited him to stay in his bed for the night? how was this possible. watching the man sleep kakashi smiled, it didn’t matter if this was a one time thing, at least he'd get to be close to the man. settling down into the bed the jounin let himself drift off to sleep again.

*******

kakashi instinctively woke when the sun came up. opening his eyes they widened when he realized why he was so warm without any blankets on him. it hadn’t been a dream, he really had climbed into the same bed as the chunin. iruka had snuggled closer to him in his sleep and had managed to wrap an arm around kakashi's waist. laying there a moment frozen, kakashi looked up to the chunin's sleeping face. iruka was completely relaxed not a trace of worry on his face. unable to resist, in case this was a one time thing kakashi reached out and brushed a lock of hair out of the chunin's face and froze when iruka snuggled closer to him, smiling he let his arm come to wrap around the mans chest, looking out the window they could afford a couple more minutes. smirking to himself kakashi shut his eyes again and took the time to enjoy this closeness.  
iruka was warm and he felt completely safe, something he hadn’t felt in a long long time. opening his eyes they widened when he realized that he was laying practically on top of kakashi and that his arm was around the jounin’s waist. then as if that wasn’t enough of a shock, iruka realized something else, kakashi's arm was wrapped around him. smiling the chunin tilted his head back to look up at the sleeping jounin. kakashi seemed relaxed for once, totally relaxed, not something he had ever seen on the jounin's face before. deciding not to rock the boat, iruka snuggled closer to the jounin and closed his eyes again.  
kakashi felt iruka snuggle against him some more and smiled. it seemed that the chunin loved to cuddle. if it had been anyone else he would have tortured them relentlessly with this information but seeing as it was iruka, he'd let the man get away with using him as his own personal teddy bear. opening his eye he took in the position of the sun and sighed, all good things had to end. prepared to have one hell of a situation on his hands with the chunin when he found out he had snuggled against him. kakashi was rather shocked when he touched the man's shoulder and gave it a gentle shake and iruka simply stated.  
"five more minutes kakashi"  
smiling at the chunin who was apparently more aware of his surroundings than he gave the chunin credit for, the jounin shook his head before asking.  
"how long have you been awake?"  
"im not awake, mm sleeping"  
kakashi laughed at the chunin who clung to him.  
"you have your appointment with the hokage"  
"mm your never on time, why should i be"  
smiling at the chunin's reluctance to move, kakashi leaned over the man and whispered.  
" c'mon time to get up, you can attack me later if you feel like it"  
iruka smiled, he was secretly glad that kakashi didn’t mind him snuggling up to him. sighing iruka detached himself from around the jounin and crawled out of bed. the pair gave each other similar looks before separating to get ready for the appointment. once they were ready they headed off to see the hokage, leaving a whining mayonaka at home.

**********

"well their healing well, you should be able to start training tomorrow, but be careful, they could break again if put under too much strain"  
iruka couldn’t resist asking.  
"does that mean no taijitsu"  
his voice hopeful causing kakashi to laugh. the hokage caught on and smiled at him.  
"no, you can still do taijitsu, just be careful of how you take the hits and how you land"  
iruka pouted a bit but nodded. climbing down from the examination table, iruka returned to kakashi's side before thanking the hokage for her time. she waved him off and told them to work hard over the next couple days for iruka’s test. the men agreed and saw themselves out.

they were walking down the street when iruka started to hear the murmurs again, the chunin silently prayed that kakashi wouldn’t notice, but like always his luck was not on his side. surprisingly instead of confronting the people like he thought kakashi would do, the man just wrapped his arm around iruka’s shoulder and pulled him closer. stiffening in the jounin’s grasp iruka bit out tightly under his breath.  
"what are you doing?"  
"does this bother you?"  
the jounin asked, wondering if he was pushing too hard. kakashi just wanted to prove to the villagers that iruka wasn’t what they were saying he was. iruka finally shook his head before saying.  
"no, but they'll talk"  
kakashi shrugged before stating.  
"let em, its not like their opinion matters"  
iruka continued to blush the entire way back to the apartment. much to kakashi's delight. he let the chunin go when they reached the stairs and followed the beat red man up to the apartment door. iruka was quick to calm mayonaka as they entered the apartment, the ninken running around them in excitement upon their return. kakashis shook his head at the ninken’s behavior before turning to lock the apartment. iruka smiled down at his ninken before shooing her off into the living room. calmer now that they were both home, the dog quickly did as asked. leaving iruka and kakashi to take their sandals off and come into the apartment like normal. turning around from having locked the door kakashi was surprised to find himself with a tangled mess of iruka wrapped around him the moment he turned back around. smiling kakashi let the chunin embrace him, his smile only growing when he heard the chunin mutter into his vest.  
"your an idiot"  
"mah, some say genius"  
kakashi felt as well as heard iruka let out a laugh. pulling away the still blushing iruka stated quite seriously.  
"you shouldn’t be seen with me like that"  
kakashi frowned at the man, and grabbed his arm when iruka started to turn away, obviously having said his opinion on the matter.  
"what do you mean?"  
looking back at the jounin, iruka couldn’t contain some of the hurt in his voice as he said.  
"im not good for you"  
before iruka could realize what was happening he was pressed against a solid chest again, strong arms wrapped around him. the chunin couldn’t bring himself to push kakashi away.  
"now who's the idiot, your not bad for me, iruka far from it in fact. i've seen war and what it does to people, i've seen anbu lose their minds and turn against their allies they swore to protect. you are far from bad. you apologize profusely when you injure a friend while training, even after they’ve told you to stop half a dozen times. you are the last thing i would consider bad for me."  
iruka let out a sob as he listened to kakashi defend him. his ribs ached with the strength that kakashi was holding him, but it was a nice ache, it made him feel loved. something he hadn’t felt since the third was around. iruka still couldn’t stop himself from trying to make kakashi understand.  
"you still shouldn’t be with someone like me"  
"i'll be around who i want to be around thank you very much and i've found your company to be most enjoyable."  
iruka pulled away and kakashi allowed him to, not wanting to overwhelm the chunin, but iruka didn’t pull out of the embrace he just pulled back enough so they could look at one another. he stared into kakashi's visible eye for a moment before bowing his head and saying a quiet thank you. kakashi smiled before leaning over and kissing the mans forehead. iruka could feel the definition of the mans lips even through the protective cloth of his mask. iruka smiled with his head still bowed. it was kakashi that pulled them apart, grabbing iruka’s wrist to drag the man behind him. iruka was confused at first especially when they started heading for a bedroom. the chunin didn’t understand what kakashi wanted, but prayed that he hadn’t been wrong about the man leading him into the unknown.  
the chunin was rather shocked when kakashi let go of his hand and jumped onto his own bed and relaxed against the headboard. iruka looked at him for a moment skeptically before kakashi explained.  
"you said you wanted five more minutes"  
smiling as it dawned on him, iruka climbed onto the bed and made himself comfortable wrapped around kakashi. he felt the nin shift a little and glanced up to see him reading again. even the stupid porn couldn’t take away from this, iruka relaxed as kakashi let his free hand trail through the chunin’s hair like he had done the night before. it quickly lulled the chunin to sleep.  
kakashi enjoyed seeing the surprise on the chunin's face when he told him about the five minutes. he enjoyed being this close to the chunin even more. his hand trailing through the mans hair as he read from his book. turning another page with his thumb kakashi glanced down to see iruka asleep. smiling the jounin went back to reading. he didn’t bother to look at the clock, he already knew the five minutes had come and gone and he couldn’t give a damn.

************

iruka woke up when something fell on his head, puzzled he lifted his head up to see the porn that kakashi normally read slide off the side of his head. looking further up found kakashi asleep, smiling iruka reached out and moved the book away from them before getting comfortable again. idly he noticed that mayonaka had at some point joined them on the bed. smirking the chunin laid his head back down and closed his eyes. he wasn’t going to be the one to disturb this amazing moment.

**********

the pair slept most of the day away together. neither one wanting to be the one to end the contact shared between them. ultimately the call of nature and food won out. gently shaking the chunin beside him kakashi waited until iruka's eyes focused on him.  
"come on we need to get some food"  
iruka nodded and climbed off of the jounin and made his way down the hallway, mayonaka quickly at his heels with kakashi trailing behind the ninken. they managed to scrape together some sandwiches before eating like ravenous dogs in the living room. iruka tossing the crust of his bread to the ninken, much to kakashi’s amusement. once they were done, kakashi asked.  
" do you like living here?"  
puzzled by the question iruka nodded his head, wondering where kakashi was going with this.  
"i'd like you to stay-even after you pass the exam"  
iruka was startled, he hadn’t been expecting that. looking to kakashi the chunin saw the nervousness on the jounin. truth be told he hadn’t thought about leaving the man’s apartment again, not since his talk with tsunade. still it was different to hear that he was wanted from the man he lived with rather than the hokage herself. iruka smiled.  
"no matter if i pass the exam or not, i'd like that”  
"You'll pass"  
came the sure response from the jounin who was smiling back at him.  
iruka smiled at the man who seemed to have so much faith in him. looking away because he was blushing too much iruka asked.  
"so you don’t mind me clinging to you like a leech?"  
"mah your a very comfortable leech, and i've had the joys of experiencing the real ones"  
iruka laughed before facing the man.  
“really now? i’m sure that was exciting.”  
kakashi snorted.  
“not overly so, no.”  
smirking iruka watched the jounin a moment before he dared to ask.  
"what will your team think?"  
kakashi laughed a little before giving the now frowning chunin an answer to his question. kakashi understood the man’s reservations with other people’s opinions, but this was one case where it really was going to throw the chunin for a loop.  
"they were already asking when i was going to get the guts to talk to you. i heard about it for two days straight, trust me when i say they will be pleased to hear that we’ve worked this all out."  
smiling iruka was glad to know that he wasn’t going to be intruding on their relationship with one another. kakashi was close to his team and iruka would sooner leave than make things difficult for the man.  
“so i’m going to continue living here with you, regardless of passing the exam or not”  
kakashi nodded his head. iruka bit his lip before asking.  
“and were roommates then...”  
smirking at the blushing chunin, kakashi spared the poor man from having to say anything presumptiousis first.  
“were roommates and were friends and...anything else we choose to be.”  
“anything?”  
kakashi nodded his head as he smiled at the nervous man a crossed the room from him.  
“no pressure, we are whatever this is”  
kakashi motioned between them. iruka smiled at the jounin before doing the same thing as he said.  
“i like this”  
kakashi laughed before nodding his head.  
“me too.”  
the pair smiled at each other. neither bothering to comment on the awkwardness that had just transpired between them. talking about their ‘relationship’ as if they were nervous teenagers trying to get a date for the first time. smirking a bit the chunin couldn’t help but rib the man.  
"what will all your adoring fans think about this?"  
iruka waved between them. kakashi frowned at the chunin before he registered what the chunin was implying. smirking kakashi easily told the chunin.  
"if this. gets them to stop following me around its a bonus to being with you"  
iruka blushed hotly as kakashi spoke so casually about being together. he couldn’t have fathomed that things would just line up like this, that he would now have the opportunity to be with kakashi. iruka didn’t care if he passed the stupid test or not, so long as kakashi was waiting for him at the finish line. that was more than enough of a reward for going through with all of this. the chunin was brought from his musings by kakashi telling him.  
"well we should try and sleep, we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow and the rest of the week for that matter"  
iruka nodded and got up to follow the ninja, the chunin was about to enter his own room when his hand was grasped by kakashi and he was tugged into the jounin’s room once more. iruka didn’t bother to argue, but stripped off his clothes until he was only in a pair of boxers just like kakashi was except for his ever present mask. iruka smirked at the sight of it, wisely choosing not to comment on the man’s choice of attire. they climbed under the covers and kakashi pulled iruka to him, not that iruka wasn’t already planning to get closer to him. the pair snorted when mayonaka jumped up onto the bed and circled a few times before settling by their feet glancing to each other they smirked before settling down in the bed. setting his head on kakashi's chest iruka could hear the strong heartbeat under the solid muscle. even though they had already slept so much earlier in the day iruka didn’t find it hard to fall asleep wrapped in kakashi's arms.

**********

kakashi woke up rather suddenly, frowning the jounin looked around for what might have caused him to wake up so suddenly. there was no one in the apartment, but them. a glance down the length of the bed showed that mayonaka was sleeping soundly. no disturbed by whatever had caused the jounin’s own senses to flare. kakashi got his answer a moment later when he looked down to see iruka’s hand twitching against his chest. ah so that’s what woke him. the chunin’s fingers twitched a moment before falling still again, hiding the fact that they had moments prior been searching for something. kakashi couldn’t just turn off his anbu training and after years he'd grown accustomed to being a light sleeper, of course this was the first time in a long while he’d had someone in his bed with him. sleeping next to someone who moved around was a change of pace for the jounin. kakashi watched iruka for a minute before gently speaking to the man when his fingers started to twitch once more.  
"shhh its ok iruka"  
letting his hand trail through the brown locks, he smiled when the twitching hand stilled and came to rest securely on his chest. closing his eyes kakashi let his hand wander through his bed partners hair as he slowly drifted back to sleep.

**************

iruka moved closer to the warm body next to him, smiling as his mind caught up with his actions a moment later. he knew he was next to kakashi and he could feel the ninjas strong arm wrapped around him. he'd never felt more safe with someone else in bed with him. opening his eyes and looking up he saw kakashi's closed eye, his hitae still in place to keep the sharingan under control even as he slept. his mask as immaculate as ever. deciding to see just how good kakashi’s reflexes were, iruka carefully he unburied his arm from kakashi’s side and reached up. he was about to poke the man in the forehead when kakashi mumbled.  
"what are you doing?"  
smiling iruka couldn’t help but burst out laughing against kakashi, which although the chunin’s laughter amused him, it also confused kakashi greatly as to what the chunin found so amusing. opening his eye he stared down at the laughing chunin in confusion, but with a small tilt to his lips as he enjoyed the sound the man was making. once iruka had managed to calm himself, the chunin looked up to the jounin and said.  
"i wasn’t trying to steal your mask, i just wanted to know how close i could get to it before you'd react"  
kakashi smiled down at the curious man.  
"well now you have your answer"  
nodding iruka glanced at the clock iruka sighed.  
“we need to get going if were going to meet your team.”  
a glance to the clock confirmed what the chunin was saying. kakashi didn’t argue but he may have tightened his grip on the chunin when he tried to move. iruka looked up to kakashi to see the man looking anywhere but at him. shaking his head at the jounin iruka managed to untangle himself from the copy nin before heading to catch a shower and some clean clothes. kakashi enjoyed watching iruka walk away, he could take in the expanse of tan flesh, the details as his muscles moved. he had to stop thinking about such things before he got hard. kakashi waited until it was his turn for the shower to get up out of bed. lounging for the few minutes it took the chunin to get ready to enjoy the residual warmth in the blankets. when iruka returned, the jounin begrudgingly forced himself to go and take care of his own needs. once they were ready they headed out to meet the rest of their group for some more aggressive training.

******************************

coming through the barrier, iruka was about to ask kakashi how they should tell his teammates about their newfound closeness when kakashi pulled him in tight against his chest. shaking his head iruka guessed that would work too.  
in the end it was worth it, genma ended up nearly impaling his foot with his own senbon when his mouth flew open. raidou and the others turned to see what had him so shocked and smiled.  
"its about damn time"  
raidou muttered under his breath so kakashi coudnt hear, his teammates however did and burst out laughing. once they were in front of them, kakashi spoke.  
"alright we have four days to get him ready. tsunade said he's clear for training but to watch where you hit, his ribs are healed but could buckle under the strain since its a fresh wound."  
the group nodded and iruka pointed out to raidou.  
"she wouldn’t let me skip taijitsu though"  
smiling raidou promised to take it easy on the man at least as far as hitting his chest was concerned. of course he didn’t say that out loud, as he didn’t want the chunin to think he was babying him. it was quickly decided that genma would go first, the pair walked out a ways before kurenai called out to start. the two shinobi disappeared into the woods leaving kakashi to fend off his teammates. no sooner had the two ninja disappeared than did raidou ask.   
"so-how are things?"  
kakashi glared at raidou, but the man wasn’t intimidated by it. it was kurenai who asked.  
"who initiated it? cause-"  
knowing where the woman was heading with that train of thought, kakashi cut his teammate off.  
"he did"  
that relieved all of them on some level, to know that iruka had been the one to call out to kakashi and not the other way around. it reassured them that iruka actually wanted the other mans affection.   
"were happy for you"  
kakashi nodded, he understood perfectly that his teammates had been growing more concerned about his refusal to try and meet someone, then iruka just fell into his lap. it seemed that even kami could be kind. they heard the clashing of weapons in the distance followed closely by an explosion.  
"how are his ribs?"  
kurenai asked, she was concerned that they were starting training too soon even though they were running out of time to prepare him.  
"sore, he hasn’t said anything but he winces occasionally if he moves wrong, but tsunade made sure that they were mostly healed before he was allowed to continue training."  
the group of anbu nodded, they trusted their hokage’s advice and if she said that iruka could train then he could train. another explosion went off in the distance, followed by the tree's in that area collapsing. it was nearly twenty minutes later that they saw the first signs of genma and iruka and that was only because they could hear iruka laughing, they watched as the pair came into view and genma looked freaked out by something. he kept brushing himself off. raidou raised an eyebrow at his lover and asked.  
“what are you doing?”  
genma glared at raidou a moment before twisting about to point angrily at the chunin who was trying his best not to laugh once more as genma pointed accusingly at him.  
"its all his fault, damn that was gross"  
the man shook himself out once more as he turned and headed back towards the group. iruka just kept laughing, leaning against a tree he tried to catch his breath, his ribs were aching because of the exertion but every time he thought he had it under control genma would do something to make him start back up. it took a few minutes before the chunin was able to make his way over to the group, iruka ignoring the glare being sent his way from genma the whole time.  
"what'd you do?"  
asuma asked, iruka shrugged as he sat down before calmly stating.  
"i taught him a lesson about snakes, for some reason genma didn’t appreciate it"  
the group was silent a moment before kakashi asked.  
"you used your summons?"  
iruka nodded, he understood their surprise, he had always been cautious about using it, but he had really had his back against the wall when fighting genma today, so he had resorted to calling in backup. they watched as genma shivered again causing iruka to laugh once more before telling the anbu.  
"your being a baby about it, its not that bad"  
genma shot him a glare before pointing his finger at the chunin.  
"you would voluntarily do that to yourself?"  
now the group was confused and a little hesitant to find out what iruka was willing to do to himself. rolling his eyes iruka replied.  
"i've done it before, its a good escape technique, im sure you can see why"  
genma shuddered even as raidou wrapped his arms around him.  
"so what happened?"  
kakashi was dying to know what had freaked out his seasoned teammate out so badly and how it had to do with snakes. before iruka could try to answer the man, genma shouted out.  
"he let the damn thing swallow me!"  
that had them all in shock. iruka snorted gaining all of their attention.  
"it didn’t swallow you, if it had you wouldn’t be alive, it merely put you in its mouth, it spat you right back out anyways."  
"i thought you never summoned the bigger ones"  
kurenai asked hesitantly. iruka shrugged before commenting.  
"i normally don’t, but that particular one is pretty easy going and for a couple of rabbits it was worth the look on genma’s face"  
"that’s all it asked for?"  
kakashi wanted to make sure that iruka hadn’t gotten himself in any deeper with the creatures. iruka smiled at kakashi before explaining.  
"yep, he loves rabbits. even for his size he just likes the taste i guess. anyways, before we go home i have to do that."  
kakashi nodded his head, he would help the chunin round up some rabbits if it prevented the snakes from being angry with him. genma shuddered in raidou’s grasp making iruka snort again.  
"really its not that bad, he's overeating"  
"how is being eaten alive and freaking out overeating"  
again iruka rolled his eyes at the anbu.  
"you weren’t eaten alive, besides i've been in far worse situations with them"  
the group waited to see if the chunin would elaborate but when he didn’t raidou asked what he meant. iruka thought a moment before asking.  
"you know manda right, sensei's giant summons?"  
they all nodded, the thing was terrifying.  
"i've been in his mouth before"  
they gawked at the chunin, iruka laughed at them.  
" so see that guy was nothing, manda is a lot harder to convince to have you spit out then that little guy"  
"how'd you wind up inside manda's mouth?"  
asuma asked, his cigarette dangling precariously from his lips.  
"sensei was teaching us a lesson on snakes and wanted us to see if we could figure out how to escape the snakes mouth before time ran out. in the end he had to let us out cause we couldn’t figure it out."  
"he just stuck you in there?"  
they were all appalled at the idea, iruka shrugged before answering.  
"we actually thought it was pretty cool at the time, we were fresh out of the academy and didn’t know anything about summons, it was our first chance to see one up close. its not like we would have thought he wouldn’t let us out or anything. it was just a game back then."  
"and it ate you, that is just friggin wrong"  
genma shouted, iruka shook his head before clarifying again.  
"he didn’t eat us genma, we were just in his mouth."  
the ninja just continued to shake his head which made iruka laugh at him all the more. finally kurenai got the chunin’s attention off of the still squirming genma.  
“perhaps we can start now?”  
nodding his head iruka took a seat in front of her and waited patiently. as soon as their eyes met, iruka was falling into an illusion.

***********

it was dark, but not so dark as to prevent him from seeing. looking around he recognized the apartment. sighing iruka knew this was going to be another unpleasant memory about mizuki. he idly wondered why she kept focusing on that, was it because he and kakashi were growing closer, was she testing him? letting the illusion take over iruka watched as the darkness gave way to a figure standing in the doorway. sighing iruka watched as it approached his sleeping form on the bed. he gently tested the waters to see how hard she was focusing on the illusion. there was no give. looking back to mizuki climbing up the bed like a skilled predator iruka shook his head and tried harder to break the illusion. again he found only resistance. he watched as skillful hands reached out to caress his face before trailing down his body, going underneath the sheets to start his violation. his body never stirred and iruka knew why, even if kurenai didn’t...yet. shaking his head again he tried to break the genjitsu with a little more force, he really didn’t want kurenai to figure it out, it was only a matter of time though before she did. pushing against the invisible restraints the chunin felt them start to give just as the other version of himself opened its eyes to reveal a blank stare. his copy wasn’t responding to a single thing mizuki was doing to him. he never would, pushing against the restraints in his mind iruka finally broke free from the genjitsu.

*********

iruka blinked first proving that he had just successfully broken the jutsu, but kurenai was frowning at the man a moment later. seeing the woman’s frustration, iruka smiled and said.  
"its ok kurenai"  
she shook her head before muttering about how they should have just killed the rat, of course her teammates heard her and picked up on what the memory had revolved around. before anyone dared to comment on anything, kurenai spoke up.  
"good job on breaking it though, ready to try something harder?"  
nodding his head iruka wanted to go into the illusion world instead of having to face their questions about mizuki. he knew he couldn’t avoid them forever, but at least for right now the other anbu had to wait. iruka got his wish as a moment later he fell into another illusion.


	30. pain from the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kurenai's illusion once more sends iruka back to the dreaded cabin. the torture the chunin endures leaves more questions than answers to the anbu getting to know him. kakashi and iruka spend some more time together and the group learns the downside to iruka's kekkai genkai.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: graphic chapter...well what i would consider graphic to others. it doesn't bother me, hence me writing it, but to some it could be too much. you've been warned. like always the *** symbols break up the scenes and you can just skip over the torture scenes and not miss too much from the story.
> 
> second chapter of the day. i'll be posting more tomorrow, though it will most likely be in the afternoon because my day's seem to be getting pretty busy lately.
> 
> thanks for all the lovely comments. it makes my day. we are officially getting towards the end of the story, still a lot to happen before things wrap up, but there's really only 14 chapters left. that's it. i know im just as sad as you are all to hear that. there's a few more chapters before the jounin exam, then things really heat up. stay tuned for more.

iruka wasn’t surprised to find himself back in the cabin, it seemed that kurenai was bound and determined to find out the truth about that day. she already knew why he was being tortured, he had rebelled against his sensei when asked to kill the third, but she didn’t yet know just how far his sensei would go to make him do the task set before him. she didn’t know just how bad things had gotten before iruka had given into the command to attack the third hokage. with any luck, iruka would be able to keep things that way. he started fighting the moment that his sensei came into view. of course kurenai wasn’t about to give in that easily, not when she wanted answers. sighing iruka let the illusion play a little more, maybe if he let her see some of it she would let it go after seeing just how bad it really was. iruka didn’t intend to show her much, just enough for her to let go of this mission to find out what happened. if he pulled it off she might not go searching for this memory in the future.  
his sensei was holding a chakra scalpel, used only by med nins to make non bleeding wounds for surgery. iruka’s form shook as his sensei brought it closer.  
"you remember what this is don’t you boy"  
iruka nodded his head while he hung from his shoulders.  
"good, then tell me what are you going to do"  
"sensei-i cant pleas don’t don’t please"  
the scalpel came down to just centimeters before the skin of his stomach. iruka instinctively tried to pull away but it did no good.   
"tell me what your going to do"  
iruka shook his head back and forth, which was obviously the wrong answer.the blade touched his skin and effortlessly ripped the flesh neatly open, with precision orochimaru dragged the blade across his students stomach, creating a big enough hole for his hand to fit though. once that was done he waited for iruka to stop screaming before continuing.  
"what are you going to do"  
iruka sobbed, the pain was horrible, he could see the opening as his head was laying against his chest, he heaved air in and out and he watched his sensei's hand grow close to the wound. he flinched.  
"please sensei please don’t do it again"  
"all you have to do is do what your told, then all of this ends"  
iruka sobbed, he couldn’t do it though, he couldn’t betray his village. shaking his head iruka knew there was no way to prepare himself from the pain about to be endured. orochimaru shoved his hand through the incision causing iruka's body to buckle at the sudden invasion. the boy started gasping right away.  
iruka sighed, he idly wondered if this was what she was hoping to see, did she truly need to know everything to satisfy her curiosity. when would it become too much for even her to endure?   
“your not going to like this”  
with nothing else to do until kurenai let her guard down, he watched as orochimaru grasped something inside of him and constricted his hand around it causing the younger version of himself to scream, there was no blood, but the wound was splayed open like a mouth engulfing the mans hand. the snake sanin pushed his hand in deeper, allowing his arm to start to disappear into the boys body.  
"tell me what your going to do"  
iruka could only gasp, barely being able to bring enough air in through the pain. at the same time he couldn’t look away as his sensei's arm disappeared inside of him. the macabre sight alluring in the fact that it shouldn’t be possible. bucking when the sanin started to twist his wrist inside him, iruka started to cough violently, blood coming to his lips to spill over them as his sensei caused injury to him from within.  
"tell me what your going to do!"  
iruka gasped through the blood invading his mouth sending flecks of red onto his sensei's face as he sneered right in front of him.  
iruka sighed, it was only going to get worse from here, deciding to test the boundaries of the illusion once more. iruka pushed against the barrier of his mind, finding it looser than he thought it should be. he guessed that kurenai was shocked by what she saw enough to let her guard down. pushing harder iruka broke the jutsu sending them both back to their bodies.

***********

the reactions were immediate, iruka shook his head like he was trying to clear something from his mind and kurenai managed to lean over asuma to avoid vomiting on him. the group collectively gasped as they watched kurenai get sick from whatever memory she had just witnessed. asuma patted her back as she heaved and helped her lean against him when she was done. no one said a word, it was iruka who spoke up first as he finished clearing his head. with a somber smile the chunin said.  
"i told you, you wouldn’t like what you saw"  
kurenai nodded her head, she remembered the chunin warning her not to go digging and yet she had pressed the matter. now she knew why he had given that warning.  
"how'd you survive"  
she asked catching her breath from being sick. the group looked to iruka who was smiling at her gently.  
"he had enough skill to undo what he did, if it had been anyone else i would have died a long time ago"  
"still the damage-"  
iruka smiled at her before lifting up his shirt to show a 3 inch scar on his abdomen.  
"that’s all that’s left, he knew what he was doing kurenai"  
kurenai nodded, before apologizing to the chunin. iruka shook his head to the woman before saying.  
"im the one who should be sorry, i didn’t have to let you see that, i knew you wouldn’t like it but you didn’t seem to want to let that memory go so i figured i'd let you find out the answers for yourself."  
she nodded, before talking to him again.  
"i think im done for the day"  
iruka nodded, he understood her need to distance herself from what she had just seen, to give herself time to process it. iruka felt kakashi place a hand on his shoulder and looked to the jounin.  
"what was it?"  
shaking his head at the man, the chunin replied.  
"you really wouldn’t like to know about it, you saw kurenai's reaction."  
kakashi left it at that, he was sure that he could get the man to talk about it in private once they were away from the rest of his team. if that didn’t work he might be able to convince kurenai to talk once iruka was occupied with something else another day. as if knowing a diversion was needed raidou called iruka to join him in the field. smiling to kakashi the chunin scampered off after his taijitsu teacher. they had barely started when kurenai muttered.  
"he performed surgery on him"  
they looked at her confused for a moment until she continued.  
"orochimaru had a chakra scalpel and he just cut him open while he was awake. then he-he put his hand through the wound and started pulling on things. that’s my guess cause iruka started having trouble breathing and he was coughing up blood, but the wound never bled. he tortured him like that for hours"  
kakashi's fist clenched at that, iruka had been cut open like some cadaver and messed around with for the sheer enjoyment of orochimaru. asuma wrapped his arms around kurenai tightly before saying everything was alright.  
"he's fine, he's right over there getting trounced again by raidou"  
she smiled at that, she couldn’t help but hold onto the look on iruka’s face as he begged orochimaru not to do it again. shuddering against asuma she let him console her as they turned their attention to the match.  
the anbu watched as raidou was giving iruka tips on how to hold himself to better protect himself during hand to hand combat, then he'd attack and let iruka test out the new knowledge. so far he seemed to be doing fairly well. they let them continue as genma turned and asked suddenly.  
"why was he doing that?"  
"it was about the third, iruka was refusing to hurt him and orochimaru was demanding he do it"  
they sighed, of course they knew how that had ended, iruka must have finally broke under the torture and just given into the orders to make the pain finally stop. everyone had their breaking point, they couldn’t fault the chunin for breaking under orochimaru’s care. after all, they all had to under go torture training to be in anbu, they knew how far a persons mind could be pushed before it began to break down. everyone had limits, even the best of them. the group smiled as the pair from the field rejoined them, iruka was panting and holding his chest. but otherwise seemed to be doing just fine. sitting back down to take a breather iruka excepted the water bottle from kakashi and took a long drag of the cold water before handing it back to the man.  
"hows your chest?"  
"i wont lie, i think i might actually need to take one of those painkillers they gave me later on, otherwise im not going to be able to move tomorrow"  
kakashi nodded, he had wondered if iruka was going to give into the need for medication after today, he was silently glad that the ninja was smart enough to know the limitations of his own body. asuma, stood up from behind kurenai, letting her take his spot against the tree before motioning iruka to follow.  
they filled raidou in on what they had talked about while asuma trained iruka, shaking his head the man couldn’t help but glance at the chunin who had grown on them all.   
it wasn’t more than a half an hour before asuma was done with iruka, it was obvious that the still healing nin was exhausted by the way he carried himself. the group stood as asuma lead iruka back over to them. kakashi wrapped an arm around iruka, feeling him sag a little against him. asuma likewise wrapped an arm around kurenai before telling iruka.  
"good match, though you were giving too much of your left side as a sacrifice to overcome my other attacks"  
iruka nodded before mumbling about not needing that side anyways. the anbu huffed out a laugh before telling kakashi to take the poor man home. kakashi was about to just use the transportation jutsu to take them home when iruka muttered.  
"rabbits"  
cursing under his breath the jounin remembered that iruka had a debt to repay. sighing the jounin carefully lowered iruka down and asked how many the snake would need.  
"four should be good, but i can hel-"  
kakashi was gone before iruka could continue his sentence. frowning at the smiling anbu around him, iruka impatiently waited for kakashi to return with the rabbits. once he reappeared five rabbits in tow, iruka bit his thumb and summoned the snake. once the smoke had cleared a large snake was revealed, a very large snake. genma shuddered and stepped closer to raidou. iruka ignored him and bowed to the snake, the snake just glared at him for a moment before asking.  
"who do i need to mouth now?"  
iruka shook his head at the large serpant.  
"no one, i brought the rabbits you asked for. thank you for your help"  
the snake regarded the man in front of him casually before excepting the offered meal. swallowing all five rabbits in a single gulp. iruka smiled at the snake and wasn’t surprised when it spoke one last time to him.  
"at least you honor your debts"  
with that he was gone in a puff of smoke. leaning back iruka knew kakashi was behind him and would let him use him as a support, he relaxed against the strong chest a moment before calling out.  
"don’t worry genma i'll protect you from the big bad snake"  
a smile came to his lips as he turned to face the anbu member. genma glared and flipped him off much to the chunin’s amusement. kakashi shook his head and prodded iruka to start heading towards the exit. 

it didn’t take long for them to arrive at the apartment and enter mayonaka of course ran to greet them, and as tired as he was iruka still took a moment to greet her back and scratch behind her ears. kakashi walked off for a minute before returning with two pills and a glass of water. iruka sighed at the sight, he knew the pills would either make him loopy or knock him on his ass for the rest of the day.  
"you said so yourself"  
the jounin reminded him, iruka nodded giving in. he took the offered pills and took a swig of water to wash them down. going to his chair he sighed as he relaxed. kakashi made some tea before joining him in the living room. the copy nin was rather surprised when iruka said quite seriously.  
"i apologize now for anything i do in the next 4 to 6 hours give or take how long these things work"  
kakashi smiled at him before saying.  
“i promise not to hold anything you say or do in the next 4 to 6 hours.”  
it was a good thing they had that brief conversation because only a short time later iruka started talking out loud about anything that popped into his head. it was entertaining for kakashi, but he also felt guilty for taking advantage of the situation when he asked.  
"how long have you liked me?"  
"hmm, oh a while, figured i didn’t stand a chance i mean look at me"  
as if the emphasize the point iruka poked himself in the chest and started laughing, shaking his head kakashi let the nin entertain himself. it was a couple hours later when kakashi dragged a still incoherent iruka to bed, getting him settled he kissed the mans forehead before telling him to rest. iruka didn’t seem to want to argue because he just made himself comfortable before closing his eyes. kakashi watched him a moment, making sure that the chunin was indeed going to stay put before he returned to the living room for a while longer.  
it was sometime later that kakashi crawled into bed with the man, iruka mumbled out a confused 'kakashi' before snuggling closer to the new body next to him. wrapping his arm around iruka he snuggled down for a good nights rest next to the man he was quickly finding himself falling in love with.

**************

kakashi's eyes shot open, sighing he looked down to iruka to find the man moving around a little, frowning the jounin was about to start talking to the ninja to calm him when iruka stilled his movements and relaxed back against him. smiling kakashi made sure his arm wasn’t too tight to be hurting iruka before going back to sleep.  
the second time he woke abruptly, it was because iruka was trying to disentangle himself from kakashi without waking him. frowning he called out.  
"whats wrong?"  
iruka jolted a bit but turned his head and muttered.  
"bathroom"  
letting the nin go, he waited for the half asleep man to return before wrapping his arms around him again and snuggling closer together.  
"kakashi?"  
"hmm"  
"i don’t think i want to take anymore of those pills"  
smiling the jounin shushed the man and got him to relax against his chest before watching iruka fall back to sleep. kissing the mans head once more he allowed himself to drift back to sleep now that the chunin appeared to be settled.

*************

kakashi stretched in bed, iruka was still asleep something he would have to change if they were to get to training on time, but he took a few moments to take in the sight of the sleeping chunin.  
iruka lay his arm draped across kakashi’s lap, his head turned inwards to snuggle closer to him, his hair was down like it always was during sleep and he was calm, completely calm. smiling kakashi leaned over and whispered.  
"time to get up"  
iruka frowned and burrowed more against him. smiling kakashi stroked the mans head and whispered again.  
"come on iruka, time to get up we have training in 30"  
the man groaned but turned his head up before squinting open his eyes at the jounin.  
"there ya go"  
iruka frowned at him before muttering  
"i was having a good dream"  
kakashi's smile brightened at that, he knew the man suffered from nightmares and was glad that he had apparently not been plagued by another one.  
"did it involve me and whip cream?"  
iruka burst out laughing against him, glad that the man could take a joke even if it was about sex kakashi smiled as iruka hit his arm.  
"no, there was no whip cream"  
"ah, but i was there"  
"maybe"  
came the taunt from the smirking chunin. smiling he leaned in close to the man.  
"tell me"  
iruka smiled before shaking his head, their noses practically touching.reaching out he wiggled his fingers and darted out to try and see if iruka was ticklish, he truly hoped he was.  
"ah, no kakashi no fair"  
the man buckled trying to get away from the nin's skilled hands. kakashi kept it up a couple minutes more before allowing the panting man to catch his breath.  
"want to tell me now?"  
iruka smiled breathless at the man above him. before deciding to play a different card he had up his sleeve.  
"were going to be late"  
kakashi frowned and looked to the bedside table and cursed much to the laughing iruka's amusement. kakashi darted off the bed to throw on clothes and while scrambling around told iruka to get moving. shaking his head iruka made his way into his own bedroom which he hadn’t used in the last three days to find some clothes. musing about it a moment the chunin smiled when he heard kakashi racing towards the front of the house calling after him to hurry.  
they were ten minutes late, but by the looks on kakashi's team members faces, it was enough. as they approached kakashi muttered.  
"all your fault"  
iruka smiled before saying.  
"cheer up, whats the worst they could do to you?"  
"you have no idea"  
coming to stand before the group even iruka was a little shocked at the smiles on the anbu's faces.  
"so kakashi, there any particular reason why your late to meet us?"  
kakashi just groaned at genma which caused his teammates to laugh. genma shifted his attention to iruka who was laughing.  
"and what about you hmm? did you keep kakashi up late last night?"  
the anbu team were about to yell at genma for being insensitive around the man who’d endured too much while in a relationship with mizuki when iruka laughed and said.  
"i have no idea how late he stayed up, i was drugged and in bed a couple hours after we left here. those pain pills knocked me on my ass like raidou does"  
the team smiled glad that not only had iruka not taken genma's words to heart but that he also seemed to be in bright spirits.  
"speaking of that, come on"  
raidou moved to go into the field and iruka followed suit after saying.  
“that wasn’t an invitation to do so”  
raidou smirked at the chunin as they headed into the field. the anbu chuckling at the chunin’s joke. a weary kakashi glanced to his teammates before sighing as the first of what he was sure to be the start of many questions began.  
"so what happened?"  
genma probed. kakashi glared at him before stating.  
"nothing happened you pervert, i got him the pain pills he started cracking up like he was on truth serum and i put him to bed"  
genma frowned, he had been hoping for some other juicy details.  
"well that’s boring"  
kakashi smiled at the senbon sucking man.  
"sorry to disappoint you."  
"then why were you late?"  
kurenai asked skeptically. the glare shifted to her which just made her smile all the more.  
"i had a hard time getting him out of bed this morning, the pain pills made him groggy and all he seemed to want to do was pull me back to bed"  
turning at the sound of iruka falling to the ground kakashi missed the shocked looks of his team.  
"you sleep together? like in the same bed"  
"that’s normally what sleep together means genma"  
he muttered as he watched iruka get back to his feet and charge at raidou.  
"how long has this been going on?"  
kurenai asked curiously. turning back around at them he shrugged which they knew meant he wasn’t about to answer them.  
"and he doesn’t mind sharing a bed with you?"  
asuma asked, speaking up for the first time.  
"was his idea actually"  
that made them smile, they were glad to know that iruka wasn’t afraid to ask for that kind of intimacy from another person even after what he’d endured from mizuki.  
"that’s good-so he wouldn’t let you leave this morning?"  
shaking his head kakashi smiled before answering.  
"no, tried to just keep turning away from me, like that would stop me, but after i found out he was rather ticklish i was able to get him out of bed, of course the brat had to go and be cocky about us being late."  
they laughed at their team members expense. it wasn’t too much longer before they heard iruka shout, turning around they smiled as they saw raidou had him in a hold and the chunin was having a hell of a time trying to get out of it. they watched as iruka struggled before sagging against raidou and flopping his hands out in defeat. raidou just smiled at him and let him out. once they were both standing again iruka rubbed his shoulder before trying to kick at the more experienced ninja. that got him swiftly thrown to the ground again. once the chunin got to his feet he was charging again iruka was brought once more to the ground in a completely different hold, the chunin growled much to the audiences amusement as he tried to get raidou’s leg from around his torso while struggling with the man's arm wrapped around his neck. in the end all he was able to do was move his head a bit, but that was enough. smiling to himself iruka shrugged in raidou’s grasp before doing the one thing he was sure raidou wasn’t counting on. he bit the arm in front of him. raidou cursed and released the hold to hold onto his bleeding forearm. iruka stood up and smiled at the man, wiping the blood from his mouth.  
"what is with you and biting all of the sudden?"  
raidou cursed flexing his arm to get circulation moving again. iruka shrugged before stating  
"it worked didn’t it?"  
"this time, other people might just bash your teeth out for doing that"  
iruka paled at that before muttering 'no more biting, got it' raidou smiled before walking up to the chunin and pulling him back to the group.  
they watched as raidou had the younger man in another hold, they didn’t expect iruka to be get out of that one either but were pleasantly surprised when raidou yelped and the chunin was released. they watched the two return and laughed when they saw the teeth marked wound on raidou’s arm. genma was the first to ask.  
"so now your biting people?"  
iruka shrugged as he took a minute to catch his breath.  
"he's the one that put his arm near my face, i was out of options"  
genma shook his head as he examined the wound, raidou just moved the arm away and pulled genma to him, stopping the man from worrying. asuma was the next to stand and call iruka back to the field. watching the men go raidou commented to kakashi.  
"i warned him that some opponents might crack his teeth out if he tried that with them"  
kakashi nodded, at least someone had warned the chunin against the results of using your mouth as a weapon. they turned their attention back to the field to find iruka dodging asuma's trench blades but not trying too hard to get a good offensive going. they all sighed, iruka was still holding back, they were sure he could figure out a way to get around the blades and fight one on one, he was a teacher after all and had to have knowledge on different techniques, but he still refused to come at them with any force.  
"what are we going to do with him?"  
kakashi shook his head, he wasn’t sure how to get through to iruka about using deadly intent, he understood the mans reservations against it. having been on the opposing side of it one too many times, but it could mean his life one day. kakashi didn’t even want to think about iruka being out on a life or death mission and him refusing to defend himself because of his fear of being compared to orochimaru.  
they continued to watch the match until asuma called it after making a couple shallow cuts on iruka. the chunin didn’t seem happy about it, but didn’t argue. returning to the group iruka waited to be told who he was going to be facing next. genma hopped up and smiled at the chunin before commenting.  
"don’t even try to bite me"  
iruka laughed before nodding his head. the two wandered off to start their match and the group watching continued to talk about various things as the match grew more heated if the explosions and tree's crashing to the ground were any indication.  
"well at least he's getting a work out with genma"  
they chuckled, it was asuma who asked kurenai what she had planned for him today.  
"im not really sure, there's still pieces missing from the one memory, but even im beginning to doubt if i really want to know what happened. he resists too much as it is, but putting the strain on him that way wont help him beat a genjitsu artist anyways, so i figured i'd try something new"  
they nodded their heads, silently glad that kurenai wasn’t going to put herself or iruka through more torture from that event in the man's past. a loud crashing sound got their attention and they turned to see one of the bigger tree's in front of them crash to the ground suddenly. genma walked out a minute later looking around before cursing.  
"problem?"  
kakashi called out smiling. genma scowled before pointing at him.  
"did you tell him to do that?"  
puzzled kakashi asked what he meant. genma scowled deeper for a moment before twisting around and reentering the forest. looking to one another they shrugged. whatever iruka had done had gotten on genma's nerves. it was only a couple minutes later that smoke plumed up into the sky. they figured genma was trying to literally smoke iruka out of the forest.  
"think it will work?"  
kakashi shrugged as he watched the smoke grow thicker and thicker. it would no doubt make it near impossible to breath in that area, unless the chunin was hiding inside a tree. musing aloud kakashi said.  
"he's never told me how he breaths while in the tree's, it might be a separate air supply, if so that’s not going to work"  
they nodded, curious to find out the answer. a large explosion rocked the forest followed by the shock wave from the blast clearing the dense smoke genma had set off.  
"well that’s not going to make genma happy"  
they nodded, genma liked being able to use his smoke to either draw the enemy out, or to hide his own actions. now that he couldn’t do that they were sure the mans ire would be sparked. they were more unnerved by the fact that it had grown quiet, much too quiet. looking to one another they weren’t sure whether to think something had gone wrong or the two were just playing cat and mouse with each other.  
they got their answer a couple minutes later with genma came walking through the tree's with iruka on his back, kurenai gasped and they ran over to see what had happened. iruka was awake but seemed quite out of it. they helped genma back to their sitting area before lowering iruka to the ground.  
"what happened?"  
genma shook his head.  
"i was hunting for him and set off a couple tags and the next thing i knew i could sense his chakra and it had gone all crazy for a couple seconds, when i finally found him he was just laying there"  
kakashi tried to shake iruka into a more alert state, but the chunin didn’t seem to notice the jarring of his own body.  
"iruka? what happened?"  
the chunin was staring right at him, but it was more like he was looking straight through him. frowning kakashi looked back up to genma and asked.  
"nothing else happened?"  
genma shook his head.  
"i hadn’t even landed a solid punch on him, i have no idea why he’s like that."  
the group stayed surrounding the chunin, waiting to see if he would respond to anything. kurenai was about to suggest that they take him to the hospital when iruka suddenly gasped and started coughing. kakashi started calling his name , while simultaneously trying to figure out why iruka seemed to be reacting so oddly. it wasn’t until iruka had calmed his coughing that his eyes opened again and he took in the people around him. he blinked up at the concerned faces of the anbu around him before saying.  
"hey guys"  
they all let out a collective sigh. kakashi helped the struggling chunin to sit up against him and immediately asked.  
“what happened? genma said-”  
"he got lucky"  
they frowned at him and genma sputtered.  
"i didn’t do anything"  
iruka shook his head before explaining.  
"one of your tags, it was on the tree i was hiding in, forced me out of the tree because of the blast"  
"are you ok"  
kurenai asked concerned, explosive tags were a very volatile thing, but iruka didn’t seem to be burnt anywhere.  
"i'll be fine, just not used to people getting lucky enough to find the actual tree im hiding in."  
kakashi frowned, nothing he had read about iruka's kekkai genkai had mentioned ill effects from finding the object the man was hiding in.  
"i read about your ability, it didn’t say anything about-"  
iruka shook his head before cutting the man off.  
"it wouldn’t, only people in the umino clan know about it. most of the time they die on contact from the person damaging the tree so much. its a pretty guarded secret...for obvious reasons."  
their eyes widened and genma started to apologize profusely. iruka just smiled at the distressed anbu before waving him off.  
"im fine genma, the shock wave forced me out of the tree before i could take any actual damage."  
kakashi still didn’t like what he was hearing, sure iruka's ability to hide was a great asset, but if someone got lucky enough like genma had-to have such a fatal response.  
"so you could die from someone hurting the tree your hiding in"  
asuma asked. iruka nodded before trying to calm their nerves.  
"but like i said its such a rare thing, i move as soon as i phase through one tree that way if weapons were thrown at the tree they wont hurt me. i never stay in the same tree long for that very reason, im constantly moving."  
it was raidou who dared to ask about just how hidden the chunin was in the tree’s he phased into.  
"what about other kekkai genkai's? we know the sharingan doesn’t work against see you while your inside a tree, but what about the byugkan would that see you?"  
iruka thought a moment before nodding.  
"more than likely, it would be confusing as hell to its owner though. i doubt i would look like myself when im inside the tree. we should test that with one of the kids someday"  
the group frowned before raidou commented.  
"the less people who know about that, the better"  
the group nodded and iruka just shrugged.  
"im not too worried about people finding out about it now, its only a matter of time before the hokage has to tell the council about it. once that’s out the whole village will know."  
iruka had a point, there was no way the council were just going to keep it a secret. soon the whole village would know that iruka had this rare ability and then the questions about what it could and couldn’t do would start to rise up. deciding to get things back in order kurenai got iruka’s attention and asked if he was ok to try some genjitsu, the man nodded.  
"alright, just relax"  
he was already leaning against kakashi so he didn’t figure he could get much more relaxed, but iruka didn’t say that out loud of course. soon he fell under the illusions grasp.


	31. scars tell a story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka undergoes some more genjitsu training from kurenai. managing to make it a little more interesting than even the seasoned anbu is used too. kakashi and iruka get a little closer and a unique game of show and tell transpires between them. the pair even end the night with a little progress in their new closeness together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day. garage sales are so much work man...so glad its all set up and just two more days of the actual sale and then it will be done. woot. posts will definitely be late the next two days..not too late i don't think, but in general most of my posting is going to be in the afternoons now because that seems to be the only time i get to have free time. i'll be posting the second chapter right after this one, so make sure you read both.
> 
> thanks again for all the lovely comments, kudo's and what not. we've officially hit 1800 hits to this story. amazing! hope we can reach 2000 by the end of the story. keep sending the love, the countdown to the end is almost upon us.

opening his eyes, iruka found himself to be in the center of town. he was surrounded by people and they were just staring at him. not a single word was spoken, but they wouldn’t look away from him. it was a little dis-concerning for sure, but not something to invoke fear. frowning he looked around to try and figure out what kurenai's game was. looking down at himself he brought his hands up to see them covered in blood. jolting iruka took in the appearance of his blood stained clothing, going to look back at the people he nearly screamed when he saw all of them lying on the ground dead. pulling away he tried to figure out what had happened, had he done this? his face twisted around as he tried to figure out just what was happening, finally something caught his eye, looking into the shop window to his left iruka gasped. looking back at him was an anbu. he was an anbu. raising his arms up he watched as the reflections arms did the same. then all at once the gear reflected back at him began to change a bit, slowly at first before seemingly all at once a transformation took place. the new additions to the illusion, frowning he looked back into the window to see that the mask had morphed into that of a wolf. he knew that mask, it belonged to kakashi. frowning iruka looked around to find that all the bodies were gone and he was left alone in the middle of the village, bloodstained.  
pulling away from the illusion was easier than he thought it would be, iruka wasn’t a part of this one, it didn’t revolve around a memory of his so he was easily able to pull himself back from it. the only question on his mind was why was kurenai showing him this? why show kakashi stained in so much blood?

*********

the group watched as iruka frowned, his body jumping a couple times. kakashi held him close and waited, he like all of his teammates had no idea what he was seeing, but was hoping that the chunin could break its hold.  
a couple minutes passed before iruka blinked followed shortly by kurenai. she smiled at the frowning man.  
"whats wrong? you did beautifully"  
"its just-im confused why you chose that?"  
"i wanted to see how you would react being put in another persons shoes so to say"  
iruka nodded but before he could ask anymore questions she asked if he was ready to continue. nodding his head iruka was able to smile at her, he could feel kakashi's strong arms around him and no matter what she showed him, he knew he'd be coming back to this.

************

iruka found himself in darkness, it only lasted a second before he realized the cloth over his eyes was being removed to show him where he was. the man in front of him was a ninja from a neighboring village, one not on good terms with konoha as far as iruka knew. looking around he found himself to be chained to the ceiling in much the same way as mizuki had done to him. frowning he turned his attention back to the man glaring at him coldly.  
"where is it?"  
"where's what?"  
iruka called out, the man in front of him didn’t seem to like the answer because he raised up a burly fist and struck him hard in the face.  
"where is it?"  
frowning through out the tears as his nose was know broken he sputtered out to the angry man.  
"what are you looking for?"  
again he was struck, jerking his head back forcefully.  
"where is it?"  
the man called angrily, spitting out some blood iruka was beginning to catch on. it didn’t matter what he asked he wasn’t going to get an answer, so he did the only thing he could think of at the time.  
"where is it?"  
"did you check your sock drawer"  
bam another hit to the head. groaning iruka idly wondered if he was supposed to feel this much pain in an illusion. he hadn’t tried to break it yet, but he knew it was too early for that. kurenai wouldn’t let him go that easily. so the chunin decided to play along for the time being.  
"where is it?"  
"mah i left it at home"  
bam another hit jerking his head to the side. spitting out more blood iruka couldn’t help but laugh, he didn’t know why she was doing this, but she had a long way to go before this effected him. deciding to have some fun, because he really couldn’t do anything. iruka decided to find out where or not he could make kurenai break the jutsu just because of his answers.  
"where is it?"  
"check genma's senbon pouch"  
bam  
"not there, ok try his underwear drawer i hear there's some really kinky things in there. raidou would know im sure."  
bam, he felt the waver in the illusion, smiling he continued.  
"where is it?"  
"still lost huh, did you check with the missions desk? there’s a lost and found there, though its mostly for the jounin who lose mission paperwork."  
bam  
"no not there huh? oh i know ask kakashi his nin dogs could find it for you"  
bam, deciding that his game wasn’t doing enough to mess with kurenai, iruka chose to up the ante.   
"where is it?"  
"i heard once that anko went out with ibiki talk about some sick twisted sex right?"  
bam, again iruka felt the waver in the illusion.  
"where is it?"  
"you know, i think i know where it is, you should go ask my sensei orochimaru, he's got so many damn things crammed down his throat its probably there"  
iruka smiled as he felt the illusion collapse in on itself.

***********

the group winced as they saw iruka's body jerk again, whatever was going on iruka was taking some hits by something. then they noticed the smile on their teammates face.  
"is she enjoying this?"  
genma called out, asuma leaned around his lover and watched as her expression changed over the course of a couple minutes.  
"yeah i think she is?"  
"sick dude"  
asuma shrugged, he was about to say something when all of the sudden the illusion broke and both iruka and kurenai were laughing hysterically, much to the confusion of the men around them.  
"god dammit iruka"  
they heard her snort out  
"what you never said how"  
shaking her head she wiped away some tears from her eyes.  
"besides its all true"  
that just made her laugh harder. leaning against asuma she replied.  
"that may be so, but that was too much information, i did not need to know those things"  
iruka shrugged leaning back against kakashi. he felt the mans arms come around his waist.  
"besides your the one that put me in an endless loop, i just thought i'd make it interesting"  
again kurenai shook her head. by now the group was thoroughly confused. it was raidou who asked.  
“what was the illusion?”  
iruka glanced over to the man and smirked.  
"she put me in a loop with some guy hitting me in the head over and over again when i answered his question wrong. there was no right answer though,so i just started getting creative with my answers to see if i could throw her off. it worked"  
the group smiled at the chunin, he was an inventive son of a bitch. kakashi leaned down and asked.  
“what did you say?”  
iruka leaned his head back and smirked up at the jounin before sharing with them all.  
"oh well at first i tried the typical responses of asking what they were looking for, when that didn’t work i just started naming off random gossip from the mission desk."  
"gossip huh?"  
genma smiled, it was kurenai who spoke up to dissuade her teammate from continuing.  
"i wouldn’t ask, one of them was about you"  
genma looked affronted at that before demanding.  
“what the hell did you hear about me?”  
the chunin just smiled at him, turning to kurenai he was shocked when she replied.  
"not in a thousand years am i going to say that out loud"  
iruka laughed at the put out woman.  
“alright alright, fair enough.”  
glancing over to genma the chunin shrugged his shoulders.  
“its really not all that bad, people get bored when their manning the mission desk and just start random gossip about who comes in. most of its just speculation based on our interactions with people.”  
genma crossed his arms over his chest, obviously wanting more than that. smirking iruka suggested.  
“just go in there in your anbu gear and confront them about it. they’ll fess up just because you’ll scare the daylights out of them.”  
genma smirked as if that was the best idea he’d heard in weeks. sighing raidou shook his head and told the chunin.  
“if something happens, i’m telling the hokage it was your idea that got him arrested.”  
iruka laughed. genma sent a glare to his lover before shaking his head.  
“lets go grab some food, figure out how were going to give you a workout you wont soon forget.”  
iruka snorted at that.  
“that wont be hard. there should be a warning label when dealing with anbu.”  
the group chuckled at the sour reply from the chunin. rising from the ground the group slowly made their way back into town to search for a place to eat. when they found a place they could all agree upon they settled themselves inside.  
sitting in a booth together, the group ordered some drinks before starting to talk to iruka about his exam. the very first question came from asuma who asked the chunin.  
“when the exam starts, what are you going to do first?”  
the very first thing that popped into his head was what the chunin said to the group, much to their amusement.  
"run"  
they laughed at the smirking chunin, before they asked him to elaborate. iruka shrugged his shoulders.  
"well depends on where we are in the forest, if i can set traps as i go that would be great, but if the area is too treacherous for that i'll just have to book it to a better area before doing that."  
the group nodded, it was iruka’s turn to ask them.  
"what are you guys going to do while waiting around to see me fight?"  
"well we will follow you, keep tabs on the examiners and what not, mostly we'll probably be scoring you ourselves, not that we can turn in our scores though"  
iruka nodded, he trusted their scoring system better than whoever was going to be going against him for real in the forest. eating together they relaxed after a hard day of training. it wasn’t until after they had left the restaurant that iruka said he wanted to go check out the bookstore down the street. the group followed along and watched as the teacher picked out a handful of books before paying and rejoining them outside. genma whistled at the bag of books before asking.  
"what are all of those for, your not going to have room in your pack to carry books with you"  
iruka snorted before shaking his head at the anbu. he knew it would be foolish of him to try and bring along something to read while in the forest of death. he would be weighed down by the books and then there was the fact that he wasn’t going to have the luxury of lounging around to read while people were chasing him.   
"these are for after"  
iruka informed them.  
"after the test?"  
kakashi asked curious as to why the man needed the books in the first place. iruka nodded his head before replying.  
"yeah, i figure im going to need something while im recuperating from whatever they put me through. i just hope i can avoid another stay at the hospital"  
the group smiled sadly at the ninja before them, the chunin truly didn’t believe in his own skills. he had too many doubts driven into him over the years by an abusive lover and a psychotic sensei. walking ahead of them iruka never saw them glance to one another, silent words taking place. they followed the chunin down the street before coming to the split in the road. this was where they would go their separate ways for the day.  
“well see you two tomorrow morning then.”  
iruka nodded his head before waving as the others departed for their own apartments. turning around iruka began making the short journey to the apartment he shared with kakashi, the jounin walking only a few paces behind him. kakashi watched the chunin swing his bag of books around like a happy child, shaking his head he caught up with him and took the man's hand into his own, he felt the man tense initially before he felt the chunin’s hand relax in his grasp. the pair shared a brief glance to each other before both breaking into grins as they continued on their way.  
arriving back at the apartment the two entered and were greeted by an energetic mayonaka who iruka wrestled with on the floor rubbing her belly and talking babyish to her, kakashi just shook his head at the chunin. stepping over his crouched form to go start some tea for them.  
kakashi heard iruka come into the kitchen behind him a moment later, but didn’t say anything. the jounin figured the man would talk if he wanted to talk. just about done with the tea he was rather surprised when arms wrapped around his torso, smiling kakashi let the chunin embrace him for a minute before asking.  
“do you want a cup of tea?”  
he felt the nod against his back and poured two cups before shifting in the mans embrace. holding the two cups up so as not to spill them on the chunin.  
"come on, back to the living room"  
iruka nodded and pulled away from kakashi, once they were in the living room and the tea cups were set down, iruka let out a squeak as he was pulled backwards onto kakashi's lap. smiling up to the copy nin, iruka couldn’t help but ask.  
“what was that for?”  
smirking at the chunin kakashi stated.  
"i could ask the same about your attack in the kitchen"  
"attack, come now i hardly think that as an attack. what you did this morning was an attack"  
kakashi smiled before stating.  
"its not my fault if your ticklish"  
iruka pouted before asking.  
"are you?"  
raising a brow to the chunin kakashi asked.  
"am i what?"  
"ticklish?"  
kakashi shook his head, iruka frowned before asking.  
"would you tell me if you were?"  
"probably not"  
sighing iruka stuck out his tongue at the man, much to kakashi's amusement. sitting in the same chair together, pressed up against one another they were warm and it was nice to be this close to someone. iruka put his head against kakashi's chest listening to the steady beat of the man's heart. it was soothing. it wasn’t long before iruka felt himself drifting off to sleep on kakashi's lap. his cup of tea long forgotten as he enjoyed the closeness to the jounin. he just hoped that the ninja didn’t mind too much.   
leaning back in his chair kakashi let iruka do as he pleased, pulling out his book he started to read. they stayed like that for a couple minutes before the jounin asked.  
"what do you want to do tonight for dinner?"  
when there was no response he asked.  
"iruka?"  
tilting his head to the side he was just barely able to see the sleeping figure of the chunin laying against his chest, the man’s head tucked away in the crook of his neck. smiling the jounin went back to reading.

iruka woke up warm and he felt safe, he could feel an arm around him and he knew it was kakashi, he could smell the man's scent through the flak jacket he still wore. the jounin’s gentle hold was firm enough to keep him from falling if the jounin shifted about, but loose enough to not be disturbing to the chunin. iruka felt some slight movement and saw out of the corner of his eye as kakashi turned the page in the book he was reading. smiling he let himself stay snuggled up against the man for a couple minutes more before asking in a sleepy tone.  
"how long was i out?"  
looking to the clock kakashi stated  
"two hours"  
before going back to his book. iruka nodded against the jounin’s chest and sat up a little more in the chair. he couldn’t believe kakashi had just let him sleep on him for two hours in the chair, it had to be uncomfortable.  
"sorry for falling asleep on you"  
"you didn’t bother me"  
smiling iruka was glad he hadn’t been a nuisance to the man.  
"come on, we better get up and start dinner"  
kakashi was reluctant to let the chunin go, but unwrapped his arms anyways. he followed the man into the kitchen and they prepared a simple dinner of fish and rice. back in the living room the two enjoyed each others company while they ate. it was kakashi who brought up training.  
"so what were some of the rumors you used against kurenai today?"  
iruka smiled around his bite of rice before shaking his head.  
"wouldn’t you like to know"  
"i would, that’s why i’m asking."  
smirking at the jounin staring at him, iruka shook his head.  
"cant its top secret stuff, only mission room employees get to know"  
kakashi smiled at him, he was sure he could figure out a way to get iruka to tell him what he wanted to know and none of it involved torture techniques or at least the traditional kinds of torture. leaning a crossed the table he spoke in a husky voice.  
"i can be very persuasive"  
iruka smiled at him before leaning forward and saying.  
"do your worst"  
without giving the chunin a chance to blink kakashi tackled the smaller man to the floor and sat astride his body. he had both of iruka’s hands in one of his own and was smiling evilly at the now restrained chunin. iruka tugged at his hands, but kakashi wasn’t about to let go. frowning iruka pouted.  
"no fair, your stronger than me"  
kakashi shrugged before leaning down and asking.  
"you going to tell me what i want to know?"  
getting a mischievous gleam in his eyes iruka shook his head. shrugging kakashi reached down and pulled the man's shirt up exposing plenty of flesh.  
"kakashi what are you doing!"  
iruka had his answer a minute later when he was bucking and laughing hysterically under the copy nin. kakashi took the time to watch iruka's reactions, it was obvious the man was very sensitive to touch and he cataloged every reaction he got from the man below him. finally stopping his torture as the man lay panting, kakashi looked down to the tan skin beneath his hand. it had a myriad of scars, more than the chunin should have for as few of missions he had actually done during his career.  
iruka caught his breath, glad that he'd been able to endure the torture kakashi had placed him under. opening his eyes the chunin watched kakashi carefully, the silver haired nin was looking at his stomach. glancing down at his exposed skin he saw what the man was looking at. his scars. allowing the man his curiosity. pulling gently at his hands, he felt kakashi loosen his grip allowing the man to escape his hold. he watched as kakashi reached out to tentatively to touch a scar just under his rib cage. sucking in a breath at the contact their eyes met, when he didn’t recieve a request to stop kakashi continued. going back to what he was doing, slowly tracing the raised line on the chunin’s flesh. with his hands free iruka decided to do a little exploring of his own, reaching out the chunin got his hands under kakashi's flak jacket and moved his shirt out of the way enough to reach skin, letting his hands trail across the well defined muscles, feeling kakashi's own set of raised lines, the man had his own scars, his own memories he would probably rather forget.  
kakashi loosened his grip on irukas hands, knowing that if iruka didn’t like what he was doing the chunin would tell him so. instead he allowed himself a couple more moments to trail a finger down the raised line of a scar tissue under the man's rib cage. how had he gotten it? was it from a mission or was it from his sensei? before kakashi could continue his own explorations he felt tentative hands come under his jacket to slide under his own shirt. smiling the jounin made it easier for the chunin by shrugging out of the heavy jacket and pulling his shirt off, leaving himself bare for the man to explore as he saw fit.   
iruka was shocked when kakashi started stripping in front of him, sure they had both been in only their boxers before, but that had been in a dark room when they were going to sleep. now he had the full view of the man in front of him. leaning up onto his elbows iruka started to try and get his own shirt off but it was too hard to do at this angle. he felt hands come around to help him and soon the shirt was going over his head and leaving him just as bare as kakashi was. the two just starred at one another for a minute, their eyes watching one another closely for any sign of hesitation, there was none. they broke eye contact and began to explore one another's bodies a moment later. kakashi adjusted himself across the mans hips making sure he wasn’t putting to much weight on the smaller man before letting his hands start at the man's neck and slowly trailing downwards. following the natural curves of the mans chiseled body only diverting to trace the scars he came across. the jounin wished he could take them all away from the kind hearted man. continuing his path down the chunin’s chest kakashi stopped just at the border to the mans pants, he didn’t want to scare iruka so he let his hands wander back to the mans shoulders, there were identical scars on either side of the mans shoulders, a rare thing in the shinobi world. rubbing his thumbs over them he frowned. they were obviously made from a senbon or another thin sharp object and had gone deep by the amount of scar tissue he could feel. at the same time that he was analyzing iruka, iruka was doing the same to him.  
iruka felt kakashi adjust himself across his hips and smiled before letting his own hands trail up the man's arms his right arm stopped when he felt the anbu tattoo on the mans shoulder, forever emblazoning him as an anbu of the leaf village. trailing his hands across the man's shoulders iruka followed the mans collar bone, a couple neat lines of scars were present, but they didn’t appear to be too deep. just shallow cuts really, but for them to have scarred the way they did, it must have been poison. trailing his fingertips over the raised edges iruka let his hands move down to the mans pectorals which had different scars crisscrossing over each other, obviously from different times throughout the nin's life. some deeper than others, they all caught irukas attention and he wondered how kakashi had gotten so many. letting his hands slowly trail down the mans sides, iruka stopped his hands to rest on the man's hips, seemingly holding him in place. iruka smiled, not many people would allow such close contact especially when dealing with their scars. the tissue could be sensitive and send phantom sparks of pain occasionally.   
looking up iruka wasn’t surprised to find kakashi watching him, but was rather shocked when kakashi reached up and moved his hitae away to uncover the sharingan. blushing a little iruka wasn’t sure why kakashi was bothering to waste energy staring at him. kakashi just smiled, his eyes crinkling as he took in the sight of the man below him. the jounin wanted to memorize every detail of the blushing man to make sure he never forgot it. he could feel iruka’s fingers twitch occasionally at his hips, the man was nervous by all the attention. he'd probably never had something so personal done between himself and mizuki. the rat had only had a one track mind when it came to iruka and kakashi was determined to show the man that things could be different with the right partner.   
leaning down so that they were inches apart from one another kakashi spoke quietly.  
"would you sate the curiosity of this crazy jounin?"  
iruka blushed all the more at the sudden lack of space between them, but nodded. kakashi smiled down to iruka before letting his hands which had been bracing him off of the chunin come down to trace the identical scars on the mans shoulders, he felt iruka tense and was about to pull away when iruka stated.  
"senbon"  
kakashi nodded, he had figured as much. looking into the hazel eyes watching him he asked.  
"how?"  
"sensei"  
kakashi was really beginning to have a large list of things to do to that snake bastard when they crossed paths again.  
"they're identical"  
the jounin couldn’t help but state, iruka nodded his head before speaking quietly.  
"he has great precision"  
kakashi nodded his head again, he didn’t doubt that orochimaru could have the skill to make identical wounds on someone the real question was why did iruka hold still to allow him to do so?  
"why?"  
iruka took a minute to look down at the mans hands gently rubbing around the area of his scars. before returning his gaze back to the mismatched eyes of kakashi.  
"i wasn’t a very good listener, he was trying to drive home a very specific point"  
kakashi sighed as he stopped tracing the scars with his fingers. leaning back he observed the chunin, iruka didn’t seem upset by his questions, but kakashi didn’t doubt that they had made the man uncomfortable. reaching down he took one of iruka’s hands and brought it up to a slash on the left side of his chest just under his nipple.  
"kunai, was able to dodge the first one but not so much the second one"  
he smiled at the chunin, iruka looked to the scar, it was thin showing that the blade had been tilted when it cut him. deciding to play along in this weird version of show and tell, iruka grabbed kakashi's hand and brought it to a rather peculiar scar on his upper shoulder.  
"chain burn"  
the chunin saw the wince on kakashis face and continued before the man could ask.  
"my chunin exam, had to learn the hard way that some traps cant be undone safely"  
kakashi nodded his head, lightly tracing the scar. iruka broke him out of his thoughts though by saying.  
"i still kicked his ass though"  
kakashi let out a bark of a laugh at the chunin and grabbed iruka’s hand and brought it to the top of his hip, pushing the edge of his pants down to expose it.  
"axe"  
iruka winced this time, axes weren’t used by shinobi, it had to have been a weapon of opportunity or desperation.  
"he nearly severed the major artery, but my teammates got to him first. took almost three days to get back to konoha, i was delirious by then."  
iruka nodded allowing himself to trace over the wound, deciding to have a bit more fun iruka sat up on his elbows again and used one arm to direct kakashi’s hand just around his back to behind his ribs. when kakashi nodded upon finding the scar there, iruka spoke.  
"poison barbs from a iwa arrow"  
kakashi made an impressed face, not many people encountered something like that.  
"was on a mission right after being promoted to chunin, we ran into trouble and i had to pick up a comrade and run. didn’t get very far before that got stuck in me, but we were able to escape. the rest of the trip home is a blur, i was completely out of it."  
kakashi stroked the mans side before bringing iruka’s hand around to his own back, finding the right scar he waited for iruka to nod.  
"don’t know if you've seen one, but its one of those curved blades that suna used to use"  
iruka’s eyes widened, he knew what the man was walking about and it was a rather nasty weapon to be cut by. nodding he let kakashi continue.  
"i got my target, but he had one more guard i didn’t see, bastard tried to gut me with it from behind but i was able to twist before he could get it in too deep"  
iruka smiled at him rubbing the man's back a moment before grasping kakashi's hand and thinking a moment, he had plenty of scars, but iruka wasn’t willing to talk about all of them, he was sure that kakashi had a few scars that were personal to him as well. deciding that he had stalled enough while thinking, the chunin brought kakashi's hand to just above his heart where a jagged scar was, it wasn’t big by any means, being about the same size as a single coin, but its location of course made it deadly if it went deep enough, kakashi waited with baited breath to hear the tale about that particular scar.  
"kunai"  
kakashi nodded, even though it didn’t look like a kunai wound he didn’t doubt that iruka would tell the truth.  
"i was tied up, couldn’t do anything about it, the kunai was dull"  
kakashi frowned, a dull kunai was just torture, it would take a long while to make a wound that deep with a blade that couldn’t cut skin.  
"all i can remember it how much it bled, i thought it had gone through my heart at first, but my heartbeat didn’t change so i just figured it was cause of how fast it was beating, either way i ended up passing out...from pain or whatever i don’t know. stitched myself up in the morning"  
kakashi looked into the brown eyes skeptically.  
"you stitched yourself closed?"  
iruka nodded before stating.  
"it wasn’t like mizuki was going too"  
ah that explained it then. kakashi really needed to pay another visit to that prison. as if iruka knew what the jounin was thinking about the man's hands came up to grab his face catching his attention right away.  
"no going back to beat mizuki up-i think you guys gave him enough head trauma for a while"  
kakashi smiled as the mans hands fell away from his face. reaching out he brought iruka's hand up to his face, closing his sharigan for a moment to place iruka's hand over the jagged scar that had taken his eye.   
"iwa nin, blocked an attack meant for my teammate, cost me my eye, but i managed to save him-for the moment, he died later during the mission and gave me his sharingan"  
iruka pulled his hand back so kakashi could reopen his eye, smiling at him he spoke.  
"im sure he's happy to know how well its served you"  
kakashi gave a faint smile, just watching the chunin for a moment.  
"i'd like to think so"  
thinking a moment kakashi leaned forward so their foreheads touched, just staring into the hazel eyes. iruka was blushing at the closeness much to his amusement.  
"mah, would you indulge me once more"  
confused with what the ninja meant iruka asked.  
"with?"  
kakashi closed the gap between them suddenly capturing iruka’s lips with his own. he felt iruka tense, but he watched as all iruka did was widen his eyes and stare back at him. the cloth between them made the whole kiss seem rather detached from the normal intimacy of the action, but it seemed to work. pulling away kakashi smiled at the man.  
"thank you"  
iruka turned bright red before stuttering out.  
"why?"  
"because i wanted to"  
iruka frowned suddenly and kakashi was wondering if he had crossed the line with the chunin.  
"ano iruka im-mmph"  
the jounin found his lips covered by the chunin's and didn’t bother to fight it, simply wrapped his arm around the chunin to cradle the back of the mans head as he enjoyed the spontaneous kiss. iruka brought up his own arm to wrap around kakashi and keep the nin in place for a little while longer before the need for air became too important for them to ignore. breaking apart they both gasped, just staring at one another as they caught their breaths. this time it was kakashi's turn to ask.  
"why'd you-"  
"because i wanted to"  
kakashi smiled at the chunin before darting forward for another quick kiss. the chunin didn’t react other than to smile at him once he pulled back. leaning back from the chunin kakashi glanced to the clock to see it was getting quite late and as much as he would love to continue with their explorations he knew they had to get up early for training. iruka followed his gaze to the clock before leaning forward to embrace kakashi, the copy ninja looked down as iruka wrapped his arms around his torso. wrapping his arms around the other nin before saying.  
"we need to get to bed"  
kakashi felt the chunin nod against him, signaling that he understood the jounin’s request to move so he could climb off of the man below him. the jounin however encountered some difficulty when iruka refused to let go of him after nodding. smirking kakashi said.  
"iruka"  
"hmm"  
"you have to let me go for this to work"  
the jounin could feel iruka chuckle against his chest.  
"come on i promise you can attack me again in bed"  
iruka nodded and actually allowed kakashi to get up that time. iruka took the hand that was given to help him up off the floor and the pair of them walked back to kakashi's room, mayonaka followed loyally behind them. climbing into bed once they had rid themselves of their pants kakashi held his arms open to allow the chunin to crawl closer to him. iruka took the opportunity and easily climbed across the bed to snuggle against the taller nin. not another word was said between them regarding their strange version of show and tell. the pair settled in for the night and were both soon asleep.


	32. snakes and stitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> returning for yet another day of grueling training, iruka has to deal with a little playful ribbing from kakashi's team. likewise the jounin has to deal with his teammates being nosy about him and iruka. when the group returns to training, iruka and genma have it out against each other, resulting in a unusual end to their sparring match.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day, there's parts of this chapter that i love and then there's parts that i dont really like that much, still couldn't bring myself to get rid of them though. they are helpful towards the stories main plot so...they got to live. the bantering between all the characters in this chapter was a lot of fun to write though. 
> 
> i'll see you guys tomorrow for another two chapters. were getting down to the final countdown folks. i promise that the story will wrap up quite a bit of loose ends, not all of them cause well i had to leave myself something to work with if i decide to write a sequel right?

kakashi woke up first like always and had a couple minutes to reflect on last nights events, he hadn’t expected to get into a game about scars with iruka, but he was glad he had. he'd learned about the chunin and in the end...he smiled as he remembered kissing the man. kakashi had been skeptical whether or not iruka would let him kiss him, but he had been pleasantly surprised when iruka kissed him back. looking down to the chunin beside him found iruka was sound asleep, the teacher trusted him at least on some level and was willing to let his guard down to be with him. for some reason no matter what mizuki had done to him over the years iruka was willing to try again. to try with him of all people and he wasn’t about to let the man down. reaching down kakashi stroked the mans cheek, knowing he couldn’t delay any longer, the jounin reached over to the mans shoulder and shook him gently. iruka's eyes opened and it took a moment for the teacher to get his bearings before he turned his head up to look at kakashi, a smile blossomed on the chunin’s face.  
"morning"  
"morning, its time to get up"  
iruka frowned at that before shaking his head against kakashi and muttering  
"im comfy"  
chuckling kakashi replied.  
"im sure you are, but we still have training today and i'd rather not be late and catch any more crap from them"  
iruka smiled before allowing kakashi to get up, sliding out of bed himself iruka started to get dressed when he turned around to watch kakashi bend over and grab his pants, blushing a little he turned away before he got caught starring. once they were both dressed they said goodbye to mayonaka and headed to the training field. 

**********

they met up with kakashi's team at their normal location and time. the group couldn’t help but smile at seeing kakashi with his arm around the younger man.  
"mah don’t you two look cute"  
genma called out to them, iruka turned beet red for a moment before frowning at the anbu who was making fun of them. then a thought came to mind.  
"hey genma you wanna see what a boa constrictor feels like?"  
the man froze before shaking his head. iruka burst out laughing at the mans face before saying.  
"mah don’t you look scared"  
the group started laughing as the anbu frowned at the chunin.  
"smart ass"  
iruka shrugged before commenting.  
"you gonna leave us alone now or do i get to have you chewed on a bit"  
everyone saw the uncontrollable shiver the anbu gave and smiled, raidou wrapped his arms around his lover before speaking.  
"call him off kakashi"  
iruka felt kakashi arm tighten a bit around him before the jounin whispered in his ears.  
"play nice"  
"i will if he will"  
the chunin countered. snorting kakashi shrugged to raidou who was shaking his head back and forth. genma stepped away from his much bulkier lover and said.  
"just for that im gonna wear your ass out"  
iruka rolled his eyes at the anbu before countering.  
"and how is that different from any other day?"  
genma shrugged before saying.  
"im not going to go easy on you today"  
iruka nodded his head.  
“does that mean you were going easy all this time?”  
genma raised a brow to him, waiting for some kind of smart ass remark from the chunin. getting none, the anbu nodded his head. iruka sighed before looking up to kakashi.  
“can i forfeit?”  
kakashi smirked and shook his head to the chunin. the entire group heard the chunin mutter ‘damn’. genma smirked at the chunin.  
“dont worry iruka, if you can manage to hold any of us off for a while that will be more than the exam should hold for you.”  
iruka sighed and nodded his head to kurenai’s attempts to make it better. if he could hold off a fully trained anbu even for just a little bit then maybe he would have a shot against the jounin who would be testing him during his exam. seeing that the peace had once more been restored, she leveled a look between the chunin and genma.  
"alright alright you two can pound each other into the ground once your match starts, i believe asuma is going first today"  
kurenai called out to the two arguing men. genma frowned at kurenai but nodded before sitting down with raidou. kurenai and kakashi took their seats and watched as asuma started to train with iruka with his blades. pouting a little genma asked.  
"so whats up with you two?"  
kakashi raised a brow before asking.  
"and what makes you think something is up?"  
the senbon sucking nin snorted at him and waited for kakashi to spill. sighing kakashi shrugged before saying.  
"we talked, told stories, and if you must know he let me kiss him"  
kurenai was smiling wide upon hearing the news, while genma reached out to punch the man in the shoulder in some form of congratulations. it was kurenai who asked.  
"you showed him your face?"  
kakashi shook his head and she pouted.  
"well that’s not romantic at all"  
genma and raidou laughed at their female teammate before commenting.  
"you realize were not some romance novel right? were just like you and asuma."  
kurenai ignored the man’s remark by saying.  
"but still, leaving your mask on, its not very personal"  
kakashi smiled before stating.  
"it was personal enough for us and our conversation made up for that"  
"oh?"  
her curiosity piqued. kakashi grinned as he nodded.  
"we played a game of sorts-"  
"a sex game?"  
scowling at genma, kakashi muttered to raidou.  
"reel him in would you"  
genma was about to yell at kakashi when he found himself pulled against raidou’s chest and the man leaned down to kiss him suddenly. pulling away genma smiled at raidou before waiting for kakashi to continue with his story pleasantly distracted by his lovers move.  
"no sex game, we were without our shirts though if that means anything to you. we talked about some of our scars and explained how we got them. it was informative as well as personal"  
"well that’s a little kinky"  
genma said a little satisfied to know the pair hadn’t just been talking. kakashi shook his head at his teammate, genma would say just about anything that came to his mind and although he loved it about the nin, it did sometimes make the ninja put his foot in his own mouth.  
"how did he take it?"  
kurenai asked skeptically. kakashi smiled at her before saying.  
"it went well, he talked about some wounds that orochimaru gave him as well as mizuki, a couple from some missions. we went back and forth sharing stories."  
they nodded surprised that the chunin had been so calm when revealing such personal things. genma couldn’t resist in asking.  
"and what did you show him?"  
shaking his head at his teammate kakashi answered.  
"i showed him some of my scars from missions"  
genma frowned before asking.  
"did you show him the one on your foot?"  
kakashi laughed remembering how he had gotten that particular one, shaking his head he clarified.  
"no, just on our chests and back."  
"so you were shirtless, nice"  
"yes genma we were shirtless, i already said as much, how else would we show each other the scars?"  
the anbu snorted before stating.  
“how was i supposed to know if you were lying or not?”  
shaking his head kakashi replied.  
“why would i lie about taking my shirt off?”  
genma shrugged before turning his attention to the match going on. shaking his head kakashi and others turned their attention towards the chunin who was fiercely trying to beat the stronger man, he watched as iruka threw weapons that asuma avoided knowing the chunin's tricks now.   
"think he's got anything else up his sleeve?"  
"we didn’t talk about any of his other skills so your guess is as good as mine"  
raidou nodded, they knew now not to underestimate the smaller man, but they also knew he was still holding way too much back. iruka darted around asuma trying to get behind the man,but asuma wasn’t falling for it. getting frustrated iruka pulled out some more weapons to throw to hopefully distract the man enough for him to get in close enough to make a hit. iruka knew it didn’t have to draw blood, a hit was a hit on an anbu. ducking another swipe by the man, the chunin barely avoided the chakra trail the blade emitted. cursing iruka kicked out at the man only to have asuma jump over his leg and come down to crash his blades over his head, that is what would have happened if he had stayed there, iruka quickly rolled backwards and climbed to his feet again. panting iruka wasn’t sure what else to do. asuma wasn’t leaving any room for him to get a hit in, which he didn’t expect the man too, but he was running out of options. avoiding more hits he tried to think of anything he could do to overpower the anbu.  
there had been a couple close calls, but overall iruka had managed to not get hurt by asuma which was just as important as him being able to land a hit on the man. they winced as asuma kicked iruka to the ground, the teacher tumbling a couple times before righting himself.  
"how do you think he'll do in hand to hand when he's not fighting someone with chakra blades?"  
"i think he'll hold his own, but its better to prepare him for anything that could happen then make him believe that no one would use those skills against him."  
the others nodded, they had done their best to prepare the chunin, there was no doubt that he had a little bit of a leg up simply because they had been the ones training him instead of just a regular jounin. they watched as iruka suddenly decided to run full sprint towards asuma.  
"what in the hell is he thinking?"  
"i don’t think he is?"  
they watched as iruka faked to the right and then instead of going for the left somersaulted over asuma to land behind the man and trip him up, asuma countered by twisting around with the blades ready to cut as he fell. iruka barely dodged the one near his throat, but couldn’t avoid the one aimed at his stomach. the chunin felt the tearing sensation even as he managed to roll away at the same time as he managed to land asuma on his ass. standing iruka panted and smiled as he saw asuma getting off the ground, his hand coming to push against the gash on his stomach. it wasn’t too deep and he didn’t think he needed any medical aid for it, but iruka ignored it for the sake of walking towards the anbu who was shaking his head at the mans gutsy move.  
"that was ballsy i'll give you that, but i drew blood and you didn’t so the victory still goes to me"  
iruka didn’t complain, he just nodded and headed back towards the group, once they were seated the chunin felt kakashi trying to tug his hand away from his stomach. glancing towards kakashi, iruka stilled the man’s hands and said.  
"its fine"  
"your bleeding through your fingers"  
looking down he found that the ninja was correct, frowning the chunin wondered if he had been wrong on his initial assessment of the wound. letting kakashi pull his hand away and lift his shirt iruka was surprised to find the cut deeper than he had thought it was.  
"damn, sorry iruka, i should have adjusted when i twisted around"  
looking at the gash he turned his attention to the man who'd cut him.  
"don’t worry about it, truth be told i can barely feel it"  
they looked at him like he was nuts, smiling the chunin poked at the scar they knew orochimaru had caused when performing surgery on the man.  
"there’s not a lot of feeling in this area, probably why i didn’t think it was that deep"  
they nodded as kakashi gently pulled the edges of the wound open again to gauge just how deep it really was. sighing the jounin told the chunin.  
"your gonna need stitches"  
"really? are you sure?"  
looking down at the wound, iruka was quickly being covered by his own blood. frowning he looked to kakashi before asking.  
"we don’t have to go to the hospital do we? cant you just stitch it up?"  
kakashi was shocked that the chunin would ask him to give him medical aid. seeing the apparent shock on the man’s face iruka asked.  
"what? you said you've done it before and its not like i'll need painkillers i cant even feel it"  
sighing kakashi nodded his head before asking asuma for the first aid kit he knew the man always brought with him. fishing out the supplies the jounin told iruka to lay on his back. the chunin easily complied before moving his shirt out of kakashi's way. kurenai handed kakashi some water to wash away the blood in his way.  
"this is gonna sting"  
iruka nodded his head but to their surprise he didn’t even flinch as the water was used to remove the blood. using some gauze kakashi patted the wound dry, sopping up some new blood that was beginning to flow. getting the needle and thread ready, he leaned over the chunin and started to neatly stitch the gash together. it didn’t take more that five stitches for the gash to be closed and iruka didn’t seem to react even as kakashi pierced his skin with the needle. wiping the rest of the blood away the jounin smiled at iruka and nodded.  
“all done”  
iruka sat up without even making a face. kakashi cleaned up the supplies and put the stuff away in the kit before turning to iruka to ask if he was ok.  
"im fine, like i said i don’t have much feeling there. its kinda a bonus"  
"not if you get seriously hurt, you could end up in a dangerous situation if you ignore a wound in that area"  
kurenai spoke authoritatively. iruka nodded his head and promised to be careful, that seemed to put the woman at ease. raidou cracked his knuckles suddenly gaining iruka’s attention.  
“time for my turn.”  
iruka glanced from raidou to the rest of the group before stating.  
"but i've been wounded"  
the anbu chuckled at the chunin as raidou climbed to his feet and said.  
"nice try move it"  
iruka laughed before climbing to his feet and following after the man, kurenai called out to raidou.  
"be careful of his stitches"  
raidou waved her off muttering under his breath so only iruka could hear 'mother hen' the chunin snorted before coming to stand in front of him.  
watching the two leave, the group relaxed as they watched the match begin in front of them.  
"well that was interesting"  
genma spoke up, chewing on his favorite senbon. asuma nodded before cleaning his blades, there was a little blood on one of them and he wasn’t about to leave the chunin's blood there. kurenai smiled up at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. it wasn’t too long before they heard the tell tale signs of iruka being thrown to the ground. smiling to each other they looked over to find the man laying on his back with raidou standing over him obviously lecturing him. turning back around kurenai filled asuma in on what he had missed, namely that kakashi had gotten shirtless with the chunin and kissed him. asuma smiled at his long time friend before saying.  
"about time"  
kakashi snorted at him before idly commenting.  
"and how long did it take you to get up the balls to ask her out?"  
"touche"  
kakashi nodded and returned to watching the match between raidou and iruka. the match wasn’t overly entertaining so they started talking about iruka’s test instead.  
"have you told him about what to expect in the forest?"  
kakashi shook his head.  
"no, i was gonna warn him tonight, there's not much i can do but tell him to be careful. until he comes a crossed certain things and gains experience he's going to screw up a couple times before he learns."  
they nodded, it was something that they had all gone through with their students, it was hard to not just give the students the answers when they struggled. the match between the chunin and raidou wasn’t long, most likely because raidou didn’t wish to tear the stitches the chunin had just received. raidou returned with iruka in tow, sitting down gingerly iruka rubbed his stomach which caused some concern, iruka waved them off before stating he could feel it now simply because raidou had thrown him around.   
after taking some time to eat lunch, it was genma’s turn to train with iruka. he lead the chunin towards the woods and they were off. the group of anbu heard the typical noises of the two fighting in the distance, an explosion here a tree falling there. it was a typical ninjitsu battle between two people. as they waited they talked about the kids and how they were doing, they knew not to ask about sasuke, but they asked about naruto and sakura who kakashi was more than willing to talk about.  
"a med nin huh?"  
nodding his head kakashi told them.  
"she's studying under the hokage now"  
their eyes widened, it wasn’t everyday that someone got to be taught by a hokage let alone a med nin as skilled as theirs.  
"that’s impressive"  
kurenai spoke out. kakashi nodded before asking how each of their teams were doing, asuma boasted about shikamaru's ability to lead his team with little input from him.  
"he'll make a great leader for a team when he reaches jounin. i just don’t know if he'll bother with teaching genin's though. he'd probably consider it too troublesome."  
the others laughed they knew all about the nara boy who was known for his laziness, despite the fact that he was a genius. they heard a loud crash from the forest before a dust cloud stirred up.  
"think iruka's making good on his promise about the snakes?"  
"i hope not, i'd prefer to find him a different contract, but i haven’t spoken to him about it yet"  
the group understood kakashi’s reasoning, the summons were supposed to help you whenever you called, not demand sacrifices and blood debts. the snakes were unruly and could easily turn against iruka if he wasn’t careful.  
"what kind of summons would he like do you think?"  
kakashi shrugged, he hadn’t really taken the time to think about what would suit the man the best. it was asuma who spoke up next.  
"why not give him a contract with your ninken?"  
kakashi had considered that, but wasn’t sure if iruka would like the idea of them having the same contract. it could be useful that was for sure, but it also might make the man feel babied. telling his team this they continued to call out different summons they thought might work for the chunin.  
"is he squeamish? he could use spiders or something like them"  
"i have no idea if he's scared of insects, you've been in his head"  
kurenai pursed her lips before tartly replying.  
"i wasn’t searching for phobias kakashi"  
the man smirked before stating.  
"true, but you could today"  
kurenai shook her head.  
"im not going to waste our time training finding out if he's afraid of animals. just ask him"  
kakashi shrugged before stating that it was just too easy to do it that way. she frowned at him as the jounin smiled back at her. the wind suddenly whipped by them, a shock wave from something. looking into the forest they didn’t see anything. it was silent.  
a couple minutes which quickly turned into a half an hour and still the ninjitsu battle wasnt over.  
"their really going at it today aren’t they."  
"i think their peeved at one another for this morning"  
the group nodded, they knew that both iruka and genma could have a temper and it made sense that when the two tempers crashed something like this would happen. before they could strike up another conversation a loud boom echoed through the field. raising a brow asuma asked.  
“what the hell was that?”  
"no clue, it wasn’t genma, i know all his tricks"  
raidou spoke clearly before looking to kakashi to see if he knew anything. the man shook his head.  
"could be one of his traps"  
they continued to wait to see what happened, another half an hour passed with no sign of the pair before kakashi said they should find the two and separate them. the group got up to start venturing into the forest when they saw iruka come darting out from the underbrush and run behind kakashi.  
"iruka?"  
kakashi asked confused as to why the man was hiding behind him.  
"you have to hide me, he's gone postal"  
raidou laughed at the chunin, shaking his head he gave a clear whistle to call his lover back to them. moments ticked by and nothing happened. turning to the chunin raidou asked.  
"did you tie him up again?"  
"earlier but he got out of it"  
nodding his head raidou had only managed to take two steps before genma appeared in a flash of smoke, his forehead was bleeding and he was scowling at the chunin who was peeking from behind kakashi.  
"did you have to do that?"  
iruka smiled before retorting.  
"you wouldn’t give up"  
"im anbu im not supposed to give up"  
iruka slowly stepped out from behind kakashi and stated.  
"yeah well im a teacher i teach people a lesson when they do stupid things, you did something stupid"  
genma frowned at the chunin before muttering.  
"next time im letting my summons eat you"  
they all knew that genma’s summons wasn’t something that would actually do that. so the threat was moot, but they had to ask what the chunin had done.  
"i laid down a special trap, its not my fault he fell for it"  
genma glared at iruka and huffed out.  
"it was totally reasonable to think you'd hide like that"  
the chunin pointed at the anbu before saying.  
"see, not my fault you made assumptions"  
raidou wrapped his arms around genma and kissed his neck when the man made to lunge at the chunin.  
"what did he do love?"  
snorting genma told the group.  
"he threw me in a pit of fuckin snakes"  
they turned to iruka in shock before iruka started laughing. the chunin shook his head to the group.  
"they weren’t real snakes genma"  
"did you do an illusion?"  
kurenai asked and iruka nodded.  
“if you managed to fool him, that must have been something to see.”  
genma cried out a quick ‘hey’ to the woman applauding the chunin’s tactics.  
"so what was in the pit?"  
kakashi had to know. turning to face the copy ninja iruka snorted out.  
"ants, lots and lots of ants"  
genma frowned before yelling about how he had been bit all over. iruka turned back to the irate ninja before saying.  
"just think of it this way, raidou can kiss it and make it better"  
that stopped genma’s rant and he turned his head around to leer at his lover. raidou just nodded his head. that seemed to do the trick and genma turned around and said.  
"you sir are a genius"  
iruka laughed at the quick change in temperament of his opponent. the chunin felt kakashi pull him to sit down so they could begin his genjitsu training. iruka was sore, but didn’t seem to be bothered too much by it. kakashi asked.  
“how’s your stomach?”  
iruka smiled at the jounin, but didn’t say anything as he turned his attention to kurenai. ready to start the training. that was quickly derailed by kakashi reaching over to move the man's shirt aside, the wound was irritated, but the stitches had held. snorting iruka pointed out.  
"see, its fine"  
kakashi let go of iruka’s shirt and nodded to the chunin. kurenai coughed to get their attention.  
"so what shall we do today?"  
iruka spouted off chipperly, kurenai smiled at him before saying.  
"im really going to test you hard today alright?"  
iruka nodded before saying.  
"do your worst"  
smiling she didn’t tell him she wasn’t about to do that to him, but just started the illusion.

***********

it was bitterly cold, the chunin was freezing, looking around him iruka found himself outside obviously, but where he didn’t know. looking around he tried to identify where he was. shivering iruka tried to breathe warmth into his fingertips which were quickly turning blue. it did little good. suddenly there was movement behind him, twisting around he sighed when he saw his teammate come through the brush.  
"come on iruka were going to get found if we don’t keep going"  
puzzled as to what his teammate meant, he followed the boy through the woods, through the deep snow. as they walked the chunin tried to ask the other boy what was going on, but the boy just kept shushing him. frowning iruka tried to piece together what was going on.  
"where's sensei?"  
"come on iruka"  
"jito where's sensei?"  
"come on iruka"  
frowning he paused in the middle of the woods, something wasn’t right here. jito turned around to face him and the boy looked sad.  
"iruka why didn’t you stop him?"  
"jito?"  
suddenly blood started to seep through the boys clothing, where the kunai wound had been. gasping at the sight of the blood iruka took a step back.  
"no jito, wait we'll get help."  
"why didn’t you stop him iruka, you were right there, why didn’t you save me?"  
turning his head around iruka tried to find someone to help, anyone. he called for his sensei, for his other teammate. but no one was coming, he knew that. turning to face the dying boy iruka muttered.  
"im so sorry"  
the boy took a step forward his face turning into a malice grin.  
"you left me to die, you just left me-you didn’t try to save me"  
shaking his head from side to side iruka tried to explain  
"no jito i tried really i did, but you pulled the kunai out and you just started bleeding everywhere and-"  
iruka felt a sudden icy hot pain, something was stabbing into him, looking down he saw a kunai sticking out of him, right where jito had been stabbed. looking up the chunin found himself suddenly in the boys place, his sensei looking over him as he gasped for air, blood gurgling in his throat, he couldn’t talk, he couldn’t tell anyone what was happening, he had to watch in horror as the man reached over and with very little effort broke his neck. he heard the distinct cracking of the vertebrae and everything went dark.


	33. jumping jacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka faces down some more illusions, fighting within himself to battle his demons. when training is done for the day kakashi and iruka play a game together with mixed results, all ending with the two of them lacking quite a bit of clothing. not that either of them seem to mind much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay first chapter of the day, first things first, sorry about the weird cliff hanger? i didn't even realize how it coincided with the genjitsu so im sorry if you guys are displeased with the seemingly random tangent this chapter takes, it was never my intention to make you guys think something had happened to iruka other than a transition from one scene to the next. my bad. that said i think this chapter will make it up too you guys. we get our first scene of smexyness, its pretty obvious where it begins so you can skip ahead if things are too hot and bothered for you. i think its a pretty good scene though. 
> 
> thanks for all the lovely comments, kudo's and whatnot. you guys make my day. the second chapter of the day will be up in just a few minutes after this one so keep your eyes peeled. enjoy.

iruka was seated before the third, the elderly man was smoking his pipe like he always did, but he was watching iruka carefully.  
"tell me what happened please"  
iruka furiously shook his head avoiding eye contact with the intimidating man in front of him. he heard the man sigh before speaking again to him.  
"i cant help you iruka if you don’t let me"  
again he shook his head.  
"im fine"  
taking another puff of his pipe the third regarded the boy in front of him carefully.  
"and your wounds?"  
"training accident sir"  
came the swift reply from the boy.  
"why didn’t you go to the hospital?"  
"i-i didn’t think it was that bad"  
letting out the smoke that had filled his lungs the third hokage took a minute to think before speaking to the child again.  
"and after you realized it was that bad?"  
"i should have gotten help sir, it wont happen again"  
the boy bowed before the hokage, asking for forgiveness.  
"see that it doesn’t"  
nodding his head iruka stood up from his deep bow.  
"am i excused sir?"  
the third nodded his head and waved the boy off, relieved that it was over iruka started for the door only to hear his name called out, turning around he waited patiently for the third to say what he wanted to say.  
"do be more careful next time my boy"  
nodding his head iruka left in a hurry and didn’t look back. 

in a flash he was no longer in the hokage tower but in the forest somewhere. he was tied to a tree and his sensei was looming over him, shaking he called out.  
" i-i told him it was an accident."  
his sensei nodded his head.  
"i told him i didn’t think it was that bad so that’s why i didn’t go to the hospital"  
again his sensei nodded. the boy waited for anything to happen before he found his sensei directly in front of him hissing out to him.  
"and what else did you promise boy"  
sobbing iruka knew where he had gone wrong when lying to the hokage. it was a mere slip of the tongue, but it meant that iruka wouldn’t be so easily believed again.  
"it wouldn’t happen again"  
"now you see our dilemma"  
iruka nodded his head, he shouldn’t have said that, it was foolish to say such things. of course it would happen again. no matter how much he wished it didn’t, it always happened again. sooner or later he would disappoint his sensei and he would have to pay the price for that.  
"what do you say next time"  
"im clumsy"  
"good and after that?"  
"i'll be more careful next time"  
his sensei started to shake his head back and forth before commenting.  
"im so disappointed in you iruka, so very disappointed. we've worked so hard to get where we are and now your just letting everything slip through your fingers."  
as if to accentuate the point the sanin grasped the boys hand and in a harsh twist snapped two of the boys fingers, iruka gasped at the sudden pain. he felt the sanin grasp the other two fingers and winced, he knew what was going to happen if he answered wrong again.  
"where did you go afterwards?"  
"home"  
the sanin tilted his head a bit before questioning the boy.  
"why didn’t you seek me out to tell me of your little meeting with the hokage"  
"i didn’t know-"  
crack, sobbing iruka looked down as the other two fingers were now twisted in the wrong direction.  
"please sensei, im sorry it wont happen again"  
the snake sanin watched the boy a moment before saying.  
"you are correct, it wont happen again. because if it does, they'll be finding your rotting corpse out in the woods being eaten by scavenging dogs. do i make myself clear"  
iruka hastily nodded his head, the snake sanin glowered at him before releasing the boy to fall to the ground. once he was on his feet iruka waited for his sensei to dismiss him.  
"go"  
he quickly turned and ran, he knew better than to look back at the angry man.  
iruka watched it all play out, the scene was transitioning again when he decided enough was enough. pushing against the invisible barrier he huffed when it didn’t give way. focusing some more on releasing himself from the memories he didn’t bother to pay attention with what was going on behind him. he could hear mizuki's voice but tuned it out as he struggled more against the bindings keeping him in the illusion, iruka winced when he heard himself screaming and the grunting of mizuki raping him. determined not to fail he fought to find a way around the barrier barring his way. iruka finally started to feel it give way and smiled. the chunin continued to ignore the horrid sounds in the background, he knew all of what was going on anyways, he'd lived it once and didn’t need to see it again to understand how horrible it was. pushing against the barrier iruka felt it finally break.

**********

they watched in silence as the chunin and kurenai battled it out in the mans mind, neither of them seemed to be effected by what was going on, so the others took their time to chat. it had been almost twenty minutes and kakashi was getting impatient.  
"what is she doing a marathon?"  
"that’s one marathon i would never take part in"  
genma muttered, he was chewing on his senbon while leaning against raidou who was rubbing his arms. asuma held kurenai to him, but made sure not to get in the way of her genjitsu. kakashi had wrapped his own arms around iruka to give him some measure of security when he snapped out of it.  
five minutes later iruka blinked and kurenai followed suit. she smiled at him.  
"that was exactly what you need to do"  
iruka leaned against the warmth seeping into his back. he was glad that he had made at least one of his teachers proud of him.  
"make sure you keep that in mind during your test just in case they trap you"  
iruka nodded, he wasn’t going to let his memories dictate if he failed or not in the stupid exam. he was tired of orochimaru and mizuki having control over him.  
“well i think were done for today.”  
with training done the groups went their separate ways. genma ranting about how he wanted raidou to make sure to kiss all the bites better as they walked down the street. iruka just chuckled and stated.  
"that was too much information"  
"that’s genma for you"  
smiling to the copy ninja the pair walked together, holding hands for the first time in public. iruka was finally beginning to come around about showing their affection with one another when outside the apartment. kakashi was glad for it, he wanted to make sure everyone knew that the spunky teacher was his.  
entering the apartment they were greeted by an excited dog who ran circles around them until iruka managed to catch her and embrace her.  
"that’s a good girl, did you miss us?"  
kakashi walked past the man and his ninken to go into the kitchen to prepare some tea for the both of them. he returned a couple minutes later with two cups of tea in hand. iruka accepted one and thanked the copy nin. taking their seats kakashi asked.  
"what do you want to do with the rest of the day?"  
iruka took a sip of the hot beverage before answering.  
"no clue, why did you have something planned?"  
kakashi shook his head before asking the chunin.  
“how is your stomach?”  
iruka looked at him a moment with a funny look before sighing and lifting up his shirt. the wound was still red from all the friction of his moving around, but it didn’t hurt him. the stitches were still in tact so there was really nothing to worry about.   
“nothing really to do, it’ll heal pretty fast i’d say since i have enough chakra to help it along. you know its not that bad of a wound"  
kakashi smirked at the chunin before nodding.  
"i know,doesn’t mean i have to like seeing you hurt"  
iruka smiled before replying.  
"well you have no excuse cause this doesn’t hurt"  
scowling at the teacher he replied.  
"just because you have limited feeling there doesn’t mean you should take the wound for granted"  
iruka shrugged before retorting.  
"and how many times have you not listened to your own wounds?"  
kakashi knew he was caught, scratching the back of his head he mumbled.  
"that’s not the point, were talking about you"  
iruka snorted before saying ' uh huh that’s what i thought' it was kakashi who moved the conversation forward.  
"anyways, with tomorrow being the last day to train, i figured you might want to do something fun before your whisked off to the lovely forest of death for three days"  
iruka smiled at kakashi's rendition of the test. the jounin made it sound like a vacation.  
"alright, im game."  
smiling kakashi stood up from his chair and excused himself for a minute. waiting on the man, iruka had no idea what kakashi was up too. he could hear some rummaging sounds from down the hall before kakashi's footsteps came back towards him. when kakashi came around the wall he was holding a black box, sitting on the floor he motioned for iruka to come join him. sliding from the chair he sat opposite of kakashi on the floor.  
"alright its a simple game really, you roll these dice to find where your piece lands and then you have to answer the question, if you cant you have to follow the instructions on the back of the card."  
iruka nodded, kakashi handed him the dice and the chunin rolled. he ended up with a ten, moving his piece he picked up the card and read it.  
‘who taught you to throw shuriken?’  
looking up to kakashi he had to ask.  
"are they all shinobi related?"  
"no, some are more personal than others, some are just plain weird. so whats your answer"  
"my dad, i wasn’t even in the academy yet and he started showing me how to hold them correctly, i couldn’t aim worth shit of course, but it was a way for us to spend time together"  
kakashi nodded and took the dice from iruka before rolling. picking up the card that corresponded with where his piece landed he read.  
'what was the first jutsu you learned'  
"replacement"  
iruka nodded but was impressed, most people didn’t learn that until they were almost out of academy, but considering who it was he shouldn’t be too surprised. rolling the dice iruka picked up the next card.  
'who was your first crush'  
thinking back he knew it would surprise kakashi to find out it wasn’t mizuki but he answered truthfully.  
"a boy named lao"  
"hmm i would have thought mizuki"  
iruka nodded his head.  
“nope, different guy caught my attention first.”  
kakashi pulled the dice out of iruka's hand and rolled, moving his piece he pulled the card.  
' who did you lose your virginity to'  
iruka turned beet red as kakashi read the card, kakashi sighed, he really didn’t want to reveal that particular story to the chunin yet so he flipped the card over and read the requirements. iruka frowned as he watched the jounin do that.  
"your not going to answer?"  
kakashi shook his head, as he moved the chair behind him for some more space before doing a handstand. iruka just smiled before asking.  
"how long do you have to stay that way?"  
"until my next turn, here"  
iruka took the dice and looked down at them a moment. he smirked up at the jounin. kakashi sighed before stating.  
“i can stay like this a while, but if you really want to make me wait, i will.”  
chuckling at the jounin’s ability to sense what he had been thinking about iruka shook his head and rolled. picking up the next card.  
' if you could change one event from your past what would it be'  
kakashi expected iruka to just do the dare, but was surprised when iruka stated quite calmly.  
"i would have told the third everything before it was too late"  
rolling the dice while he balanced on one hand kakashi picked up the card and read it while upside down.  
' who do you regret hurting the most'  
"rin"  
righting himself the jounin retook his seat, allowing the blood to come down from his head. he handed the dice to iruka and waited patiently as the man rolled and picked up a card.  
'what is the one technique you lack the most skill in'  
snorting iruka easily called out.  
"taijitsu"  
kakashi smiled at him before stating.  
"your getting better though"  
"raidou still beats me to a pulp though"  
kakashi shrugged.  
“he does that to most people”  
iruka smirked back at the jounin before motioning for the man to roll. kakashi nodded before taking the dice for his turn.  
' who do you fear the most'  
"tsunade"  
iruka burst out laughing while taking the dice from the jounin. shaking his head as he rolled.  
'whats the worst thing you've ever done'  
frowning at the card iruka flipped it over, kakashi didn’t say anything as iruka read his instructions. sighing iruka reached up and pulled his hitae over his eyes. kakashi laughed.  
"how long do you have to stay like that?"  
"two turns, take the dice"  
kakashi reached out and took the dice from the mans extended hand. iruka could hear the dice hit the ground and waited for kakashi to read the card.  
' if given the choice of assassinating a known criminal who prayed on civilians and a corrupt hokage who would you kill'  
"hokage"  
"really?"  
iruka said stunned.  
"you'd end up saving civilians and shinobi by allowing a new hokage to be selected"  
iruka tilted his head before nodding.  
"true, but that would still be tough"  
holding out his hand the chunin felt the dice fall into his palm and rolled them to the floor. then he realized that while being blind he couldn’t necessarily read the card.  
"umm-"  
"i'll read it"  
"ok"  
' what is the one thing you've never told anyone'  
"dare"  
kakashi smiled before flipping the card over. he read the instructions before glancing back up to the chunin who was waiting to hear what he was supposed to do.  
"whats it say to do, granted im already blind, but it shouldn’t be too hard to add to it"  
"nope this is an easy one"  
kakashi grinned.  
"ok"  
"choose one of your opponents in this game and kiss them"  
iruka smiled before replying.  
"what a hard choice, i guess i could pick mayon-mmph"  
he smiled around kakashi's cloth covered lips, reaching out he wrapped his arms around the taller ninja and brought their chests flush against one another, he barely registered when they fell backwards onto the floor, kakashi now on top of him. feeling kakashi pull away iruka pouted, about to tell the ninja that he shouldn’t have stopped. when he suddenly felt something he wasn’t expecting. lips, but this time they weren’t covered by cloth. gasping a little iruka wasn’t too shocked when kakashi stuck his tongue into his mouth, moaning iruka gripped the back of kakashi's head and pulled him tighter against him. relishing in the ability to taste the other man for the first time, to actually feel his face against his own without that dreadful cloth in the way. kakashi for his part was thoroughly enjoying himself, he'd seen the confusion on iruka’s face when he pulled away from him initially, but he had to hold back laughing once the teacher realized there was no barrier between them. kakashi having yanked down the cloth mask only to crash their lips together again. they continued like this for some time, until they needed to gasp for breath. feeling the hot breath of the other man on his face iruka smiled before asking.  
"it didn’t really say that did it?"  
"does it matter?"  
"not one bit"  
kakashi smiled and leaned forward to kiss iruka again, more gentle this time now that he wasn’t trying to taste every inch of iruka’s mouth. he could feel iruka pressing more of his body against him in an attempt to get closer to him, so the jounin leaned his body further down on the man,pushing him against the floor with the weight of his body. he felt iruka’s hands coming up to re wrap themselves around his back, holding him in place. it wasn’t needed, kakashi had no intentions of moving anytime soon, but it did reassure the man that this was what iruka wanted.   
iruka groaned against the jounin’s lips and opened his mouth to let kakashi delve deeper with his tongue, the copy nin didn’t need any more instruction than that. soon their tongues were battling for dominance, kakashi upped the ante by tilting their heads back to get a better angle into iruka’s mouth. the still blindfolded man groaned into the deeper kiss and raised his body against kakashi's to rub up against him subconsciously. kakashi took this as a good sign and ground his own body against the rising one of iruka’s. they both enjoyed the pleasant friction it created between them. it was only a couple more rotations of their hips when kakashi could feel the swelling in iruka's pants against his hip. smiling into the kiss the jounin balanced himself on one hand while using the other to rub against the bulge in the chunin's clothes. iruka bucked against his hand gasping as the sudden pleasure took him. kakashi's eyes widened a bit when he felt iruka's hands come to grab his ass and push him down grinding them together. 

kakashi groaned his own arousal flaring to life. it wouldn’t be much longer and it would grow uncomfortable for them both, not knowing how much further iruka was willing to go kakashi let the chunin lead their actions. they separated again to gasp for air, all the while still grinding against one another. now being able to hear the little whines coming from iruka, the jounin found himself growing impossibly hard. gritting his teeth kakashi continued to rub iruka's arousal, making the man pant beneath him. leaning in again he started to trail kisses down the mans neck, sucking harder on certain spots than others, determined to leave some kind of mark on the chunin. iruka gasped as he felt kakashi trailing love bites down his neck, his hand rubbing hungrily against his own arousal. iruka couldn’t see a thing, but in a way it made the pleasure all the more enjoyable, he had only one thing to focus on and that was what he was feeling. still having a hold on the others mans ass iruka ground them together eliciting a hiss from kakashi as the man's arousal rubbed against iruka's hip. iruka smiled glad to be able to make the man feel the same pleasure he was giving him. letting his hands wander away from the mans ass, the chunin trailed them up the body leaning over him to come to the mans neck and hold him in place when kakashi hit a particularly good spot on the junction of his shoulder and neck. 

the copy nin caught on and focused his efforts on that area making iruka sigh in pleasure as their hips ground together in the pursuit of completion. he felt kakashi's hand move away from his arousal and was about to pout, but stopped when he was able to feel the mans fingertips coming to the hem of his pants. iruka didn’t fight him, he wanted to be closer to the man and if taking his clothes off provided that, then he would run around the apartment bare ass naked from now on. the chunin craned his head back and let out a loud cry as he felt the warmth of kakashi's hand wrap around his hard length. kakashi smiled against the mans throat, iruka was as taught as ninja wire and kakashi knew just how to make the man buck into his hand. stroking the warm length in his hand, up and down he made sure his grip was solid without being too hard on the sensitive organ. once he was sure that iruka was enjoying it, kakashi changed his tempo to allow for the most friction and consequentially the most pleasure. iruka’s hips bucked up into his hands, an involuntary response he was sure, but he lowered his own hips to pin the man in place as he continued to pleasure him. nipping at the sensitive spot on the mans neck the jounin made sure not to bite down too hard, he didn’t want to draw blood.  
iruka was beginning to fall into the pleasurable haze kakashi was making around him. the man nipping at his throat, his hand stroking him gently, yet firmly enough to keep him hard as a rock. his head craned back as far as it could go iruka panted as he strained to bring in enough air to his shaking body. raising a leg up, the chunin allowed kakashi's lean form to slip into the junction of his legs, bringing them closer to one another. iruka was getting hot, too hot. unable to take the heat anymore he panted out kakashi's name. he felt the man still his efforts.  
"are you alright?"  
kakashi didn’t want to make the chunin upset by anything he was doing and he knew there could be plenty of bad memories attached to physical pleasure. iruka panted a couple breaths out before speaking again.  
"clothes"  
smiling the jounin knew what the man meant, he wanted the barriers gone. stroking the man two more times, kakashi removed his hand from iruka's pants and sat up so he could take off his shirt. iruka did the same all while still blindfolded. kakashi was vaguely curious as to why iruka hadn’t tried to remove the imposed blindness on himself. it would be something he would need to ask the chunin later, kakashi wasn’t about to kill the mood between them, not when iruka seemed willing to allow him this closeness between them. once their shirts were off, kakashi saw iruka struggle to get his pants undone, smiling the jounin reached out and started to help the man, iruka's hands came to his own pants and started to undo them as kakashi fiddled with the man's jammed zipper. pants undone, it took some shifting for them to be able to crawl out of the restrictive clothing. leaving both of them only in their underwear.   
leaning forward kakashi gave the man a chaste kiss, iruka wrapped his hands around him to pull him back into their previous position, much to kakashi's approval. they continued to kiss one another for a couple minutes before iruka's hands trailed down to kakashi's boxers, the man didn’t mind, the jounin let iruka do as he pleased as he focused on trailing his mouth back down to the apex between neck and shoulder that iruka seemed to like. he was kissing the spot he knew the chunin liked most when his body jolted at the sudden sensation of his member being grasped in the chunin's hand, the warmth surrounding his member made kakashi groan into iruka’s shoulder. it had been so long since someone had touched him that way. once again balancing himself on one arm, the jounin reached down to do his own investigating, easily slipping his hand back into iruka’s boxers to take the hard length into his palm again and start back his previous tempo. iruka bucked into his hand gasping as kakashi didn’t start slow, but continued where he had left off. determined to give kakashi the same pleasure, the chunin started a nice tempo that had kakashi breathing harder against his neck. 

both of their hips rocking a little with the motions of the others hands. they built up a slow but steady rhythm between the two of them that slowly started to increase as their pleasure mounted at each others touch. kakashi could feel iruka’s member throbbing in his hand in time with the mans accelerated heartbeat, smiling into the mans shoulder kakashi picked up the pace of his movements. grinding himself against iruka’s hand as he sought out their climaxes. iruka nearly screamed when he felt kakashi palm him before speeding up his ministrations. doing his own work on the mans member, iruka started to use the tips of his fingers to caress the man's balls on the downward stroke before sliding back up the length of the man. this seemed to have a very good effect on kakashi cause the man bit harder on his shoulder which in turn made iruka buck under the jounin. it was a never ending cycle of pleasure between them, one action lead to a reaction which lead to another action, they continued this cycle of events for some time, letting their pleasure build gradually.   
feeling himself tightening up, iruka panted harder against kakashi, it wasn’t going to be long before his body betrayed him. he wanted to hold out, for the moment to last as long as possible. kakashi continued to lathe at the mans neck, biting when the pleasure spiked in his own body. kakashi knew he was close, he also knew iruka was too. determined to bring about an pleasurable end to their nights activities. kakashi let go of iruka only for a moment to pull the man's boxers down, exposing him to the open air and allowing kakashi to finally see the man in all his glory. pulling on his own he brought the distance between them to a close and pushed iruka's hand out of the way on his own erection. bringing his hand to grasp around both of them, their erections rubbing in a very pleasurable way. both shinobi groaned at the stimulating contact. wrapping his hand around them both kakashi began to stroke them to completion, taking his time to watch iruka as the man's face contorted in his pleasure. iruka and kakashi's hips bucked against each other determined to bring them as close as they could, this only made the friction even more maddening as their erections rubbed against each other as kakashi's hand enveloped them in a warm embrace of pleasure.  
iruka could feel the sensation building in his body, the new sensation of his and kakashi's members rubbing against each other in an alternating rhythm to kakashi’s hand became to much, bucking his hips up wildly iruka cried out, screaming in pleasure as he came. his erection twitching in kakashi's grasp as it released the man's seed onto their stomachs. kakashi grit his teeth, his own release only took two more good pumps to arrive, the feeling of iruka tensing beneath him, crying out and the feeling of the man's warm member twitching in his grasp became too much for the seasoned shinobi and kakashi groaned as he crushed their pelvis's together. his seed erupting from him in a hot wave to splash against their heated flesh. collapsing onto the chunin they rode out their orgasms as kakashi continued to pump their softening members until there was nothing left to wring out of either of them. finally spent, kakashi released his hold on both of them and relaxed against iruka. 

the man was panting beneath him just like he was. desperately trying to catch his breath from the workout their body had just undergone. moving his head just a little kakashi took the time to watch iruka's face, his mouth was open in a silent cry of pleasure. smiling the jounin tucked his face into the mans shoulder and kissed him where his love bites had quickly made a rather bright hickey. he heard iruka groan under him and wondered if the man was ok, but before he could ask, he felt iruka's hand come up to wander through his hair before sliding down the length of his face in a curious manner. the jounin knew iruka wasn’t going to try and look at his face without permission so he kissed the fingertips as they trailed across his lips eliciting a startled gasp from the man below him. smiling kakashi reached the edges of his mask with his clean hand and pulled it back into place before reaching out to tug the man's hitae back up, iruka squinted at the sudden flow of light into his eyes, but once he had regained his sight he stared down at kakashi who now had his mask firmly in place. smiling iruka leaned down to kiss him with his mask on. granted they couldn’t use their tongues like this, but it was enough to convey the emotions the both of them were feeling. parting iruka let his head fall back to the floor and stare at the ceiling.   
“that was one hell of a game”  
kakashi chuckled at the chunin’s joke. iruka let his hands fall back to his sides, not having the strength to keep them wrapped around kakashi, the copy nin seemed to feel the same way, because his head laid against iruka’s shoulder. they stayed like that until their bodies had completely calmed and the semen on them began to cool. kakashi moved first, albeit very reluctantly. rolling off of iruka the jounin got himself to his knees. iruka turned his head to stare at him, his eyes trailing over the mans form for the first time since he could see every bit of the man, minus his face of course. he watched as kakashi leaned over him to stare him directly in the eyes with his two mismatched ones.  
"we need a bath"  
iruka nodded, he knew that staying as they were would grow uncomfortable in a little bit and it was better to get cleaned up while they were still awake enough to do so. getting themselves to their feet proved a little more difficult than they originally thought, both of them still weak from their orgasm's. kakashi picked up the clothing while iruka headed down the hall to start the shower, after what they'd just done iruka didn’t figure showering together would be a big deal. the chunin felt kakashi come up behind him, and felt the strong body against his back, kakashi was warm, and although there was still plenty of evidence of what they had just done on themselves the embrace wasn’t dirty to one another by any means. once the water was hot, they climbed in, iruka could feel kakashi’s mask rubbing against his shoulder when the nin reached around him to get some soap. smiling iruka leaned back to be able to see the man's eyes and stated.  
"please tell me you don’t always shower with that thing on"  
kakashi chuckled but shook his head. iruka nodded and they quickly rid themselves of the evidence of that nights activities. once they were clean they got out and dried themselves off, kakashi handed iruka a clean pair of boxers to which iruka thanked him. once they were at least covered somewhat again, they headed for the bedroom. iruka turned around as kakashi got a new mask to wear, replacing the wet one he had on. when the jounin called out to the chunin, iruka turned back around. getting under the covers together they wrapped their arms around each other, settling in for the night.  
"kakashi?"  
"yeah"  
"what did the card actually say?"  
" to do fifty jumping jacks"  
iruka snorted against the mans chest before saying.  
"i liked your version better"  
kakashi smiled, they drifted off to sleep content in each others arms after experiencing something new with one another.

***************

kakashi woke first, like always. his anbu training instilling in him to wake as soon as the sun had risen, regardless of if he was needing to do so. looking down he watched iruka sleep. kakashi hadn’t meant for last night to go so far, but he didn’t regret it at all either. stroking the man's back with his fingers he chuckled when iruka squirmed against him trying to get away from the tickling sensation. stopping his fingers from torturing the chunin kakashi sighed. today was their last day of training. tomorrow they would get up bright and early and escort iruka into the forest where he would spend three days running, fighting and hiding. looking down when iruka squirmed against him again, the jounin watched as the teachers eyes came open, the man rousing from sleep.  
"morning"  
"good morning"  
iruka kept his position with his head on kakashi's chest, just listening to the man's steady heartbeat. it was about to lull him back to sleep when kakashi ran his fingers through his hair and told him they had to get ready to go. nodding his head iruka got himself up and slid out of bed. the two dressed, ate and headed off for the last day of training.


	34. prepared as prepared can get

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka goes to his last day of training with kakashi and his team. some unsettling memories are brought forth in kurenai's illusions and although troubled by reliving these nightmares, iruka demands that they all go to dinner together. the chunin explaining that he wants to have some fun before he's trapped in the forest of death for three days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day. also the last chapter before the jounin exam begins!!! and the final countdown has begun as well!!! only 10 more chapters left of the story. don't worry no matter how tempting it was to start posting only one chapter a day, i wont do that to you guys. im not that evil.

arriving at the training field they were greeted by everyone before the group started asking about the exam that was scheduled for the next day.  
"you nervous?"  
genma asked the chunin curiously.  
"a little, mostly just because i don’t know what to expect."  
the others nodded, it was normal to be apprehensive when you didn’t know what you would be going up against.   
"were going to push you hard today, but not ware you out, your going to need your strength for the next couple days."  
iruka nodded. he had wondered what they would do today. genma handed him a tag. looking down he saw it was a chakra blocking tag, confused he looked back up to the man.  
"put it on"  
sighing, iruka attached the tag to his leg and immediately felt the difference, he was cut off from all of his chakra.  
"good, i'll take it off when were done"  
nodding his head iruka asked  
“so what are we going to be doing if i’m not allowed to use chakra?”  
genma smiled.  
"your going to go try and hide and im going to find you"  
iruka frowned, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hide very good without his chakra to help him. as if knowing what the chunin was thinking, genma explained.  
"don’t worry im not going to be using any weapons or jutsu against you, im just going to be chasing you. i want to see how long you can last without your chakra to back you up"  
nodding his head the chunin waited for genma to tell him to go before darting off as fast as his now chakra-less body could handle.  
the group watched as iruka darted off into the woods. but were surprised when genma sat down next to raidou as if he had no where to go.  
"umm genma aren’t you supposed to be you know hunting him"  
the anbu shrugged as he fished out his favorite senbon.  
"its not like hes going to get very far, besides i doubt he can find a suitable hiding place in the forest."  
kurenai frowned at her teammate before asking.  
“why are you having him do that if your not expecting him to do any good?”  
genma smirked at his teammate before telling her.  
"it'll be good to know how far he can get without chakra, by the end of the exam he's not going to have very much and he'll have to use it carefully, this way he gets a feeling for how slow he's really going to be by the end of it."  
her frowned lessened before she stated.  
"just don’t leave him out there too long"  
he waved her off before asking kakashi.  
“so did you get lucky last night?”  
kurenai turned bright red at genma's bluntness, asuma just chortled around his cigarette and raidou started shaking his head at the man he loved. kakashi gave the anbu a glare before stating.  
"if i did, i wouldn’t be telling you"  
raidou laughed at genma’s as the anbu made a face of utter despair.  
"who would you tell"  
they groaned, genma could be relentless sometimes.  
"go hunt iruka"  
kakashi said in very clear terms, if genma didn’t go he was going to face kakashi's wrath. waving off his irate teammate genma stood and jogged into the woods. once the mouthy nin was gone kakashi teased raidou.  
"so did you have to kiss it make it better?"  
raidou smirked at kakashi without revealing anything. it was twenty minutes later that genma came dragging iruka by his chunin vest. iruka was laughing, genma was not.  
"what'd he do now?"  
kakashi asked as the chunin was thrown his way. catching iruka against his chest kakashi could see the tag still in place, so iruka hadn’t cheated.  
"he managed to climb a tree, how i don’t know and decided it would be fun to jump on my back"  
the others laughed at the chunin it was kurenai who asked.  
“how did you manage that?”  
iruka shrugged before saying.  
"oh that’s easy, i used to climb tree's as a kid before i even knew what chakra was."  
shaking their heads it was iruka who asked what was next. asuma stood up and motioned him to follow. iruka made to follow before pausing. he looked to the others before pointing at his leg. like some tag's it couldn’t be removed by the person it was put on, it had to be removed by someone else. kakashi reached around iruka’s leg and ripped the paper off. instantly the chunin’s chakra flowed through his pathways again. sighing iruka thanked kakashi before following after asuma.  
"should have left it on"  
genma muttered. kakashi shook his head, it wouldn’t do iruka any good to try against asuma's chakra blades without his own to help defend himself with. the group only half paid attention to the match between the chunin and anbu. instead choosing to start their plan for the next day.  
"so is he allowed to see us?"  
kakashi shook his head.  
"i don’t think so, i doubt they would fail him if he managed to catch a glimpse of us. still it would be best if we remained completely out of sight. were of course not allowed to speak to him, i figured we'd just go in our full anbu gear that way he can separate us from the examiners if we do get in the way somehow."  
they nodded, the last thing they wanted was to be a distraction to the man while he was literally fighting an enemy.   
"its going to be a long three days"  
kakashi agreed with genma, they had all grown rather attached to the teacher, the last thing they wanted was to see the man fail or worse get hurt during the exam. there was nothing they could do, if they interfered iruka would fail.   
"you should give him a safe word"  
the glare the anbu received would freeze hell over, laughing raidou continued.  
"not like that kakashi, a safe word to let us know if he's done, if he's had enough and wants to quit that way we know when we can intervene if needed"  
that was actually a good idea. nodding to raidou it was genma who piped in.  
"it should be something he wouldn’t normally say that way he doesn’t say it by accident"  
"yeah, the last thing we want his safe word to be is bite me"  
the others laughed, iruka did have a tendency to say that to people when cornered. it was the sudden onset of arguing that caught their attention from their present conversation. they turned around in time to see asuma hit iruka upside the head. they winced, they knew how hard the man could hit. iruka didn’t seem too fazed by it because whatever they were arguing about iruka wasn’t letting up.  
"what do you think that’s about?"  
kakashi shrugged, iruka had a temper, but he wasn’t one to just throw it around either. finally the two seemed to resolve their issue and started back towards them. once they were within earshot kurenai called out to them.  
"problem?"  
asuma glanced at iruka who had his arms crossed over his chest, shaking his head asuma muttered.  
"were good"  
the group didn’t believe him, but let it go anyways. iruka didn’t bother to sit down, instead he waited as raidou got up to start heading back into the field with him. once they were gone kakashi asked.  
"so what was that about?"  
"he was asking a very stupid question"  
raising an eyebrow asuma sighed while lighting another cigarette.  
"he wanted to know if he took a direct hit from blades like mine, once they were charged with chakra, if it would kill him outright or if he could get away with a wound like that"  
the group paled,that was not a normal question one would ask.  
"what'd you say?"  
kakashi questioned his friend.  
"what do you think i said, i hit him upside the head and said he'd be the first to try it and probably the last."  
kakashi nodded, sometimes he wondered where iruka's head was at. kurenai wrapped her slender arms around asuma's larger one smiling up at him.  
"im sure he meant well, he's probably just curious"  
asuma shook his head letting out a puff of smoke.  
"no there was more too it than that, he wanted to know what would happen"  
sighing kurenai turned around to look at kakashi who was focused on the fight between raidou and iruka. they all jumped a little when they saw iruka celebrating, raidou was rubbing his chin with a wry smile on his face.  
"hey he made a hit"  
genma spoke astonished.  
"appears so"  
it wasn’t too much longer before iruka and raidou returned. iruka did something surprising to the group. the chunin didn’t sit next to kakashi, but rather he sat in the man’s lap. kakashi wrapped his arms around the man’s waist and smirked at the chunin. iruka gave him a smile over his shoulder before looking back at the others. the anbu had wry smiles on their faces causing the chunin to blush a bit. before anyone could make a comment about the bold move by the chunin, kakashi gave them a glare over the chunin's head. the message was received and the anbu stopped paying attention to the fact that iruka was sitting in kakashi’s lap. once they were all settled kurenai asked if iruka was ready. nodding his head the chunin let her transfer him into the illusion world she chose to create for him.

************

he was in the cabin again, iruka could tell by the smell of the place even before opening his eyes. once he did manage to open his eyes he felt the onslaught of pain. the chunin could taste blood in his mouth however. looking around he tried to find where his sensei had gone. he wasn’t in the cabin. which meant this was a small interlude before the man would return and do something really horrible. sighing iruka took a moment to collect his thoughts. this was all an illusion, it wasn’t real. it had already happened and his sensei couldn’t hurt him again-well unless he came back to konoha for him. shuddering his head jerked up as the door to the place came swinging open. his sensei came through the door in confident steps. once the snake sanin was in front of iruka he spoke.  
"have you changed your mind yet iruka?"  
he felt himself shake his head, even though he had no control over it. his sensei glowered at him.  
"im very disappointed to hear that"  
iruka watched as orochimaru brought the overturned barrel closer to show what was on it. a needle with a blood red liquid inside.  
"do you want to know what this is iruka?"  
the boy froze, he'd never seen anything like it at the hospital. his sensei continued even without getting a response from him.  
"this is my own personal creation, something i cooked up in my lab. you see as im sure you know by now, there are several points in the body where chakra aligns with vital organs, if one of those is severed, it means death. that’s why most anbu and hunter nins go for those particular points in the body when aiming for a kill. now im sure you will come to realize that with a little help from this lovely concoction death wont be a problem, not immediately anyways. this means i have free reign over your body with no consequences. i'll have plenty of time to just put you back together before it wares off and no one will be the wiser. so are you going to do what i asked of your iruka or are you going to get to feel what its like to die?"  
the boy shook, not even the pain from his injuries could make him stop shaking. looking from the needle to his sensei iruka started to cry.  
"please sensei"  
"now iruka, you know im not the one doing this to you, you are. you have complete control over this entire situation. all you have to do is say yes"  
the boy sobbed, his head falling to his chest.  
"im sorry sensei"  
the snake sanin tskd at the boy before grasping the boy's hair roughly to make his head move to the side, giving him greater access to the boys neck. the needle was carelessly plunged into the soft tissue making the boy cry out at the unnecessary pain of the harsh gesture. the blood red liquid was depressed by the plunger into the boys blood stream. iruka shook as he felt a weird numbness spread throughout his body, he could still acutely feel everything, every jolt of pain, but his chakra itself seemed to slow to a crawl. just enough to keep him alive, but slow enough to not let his injuries kill him. looking up to his sensei the boy pleaded with his eyes, the plea for mercy went unanswered.  
iruka never saw the kunai until it was plunged ruthlessly into his gut. coughing the boy looked down, his eyes widening. it was just sticking out of him. just like with jito. he felt the blood race up his throat to be expelled by his coughing, the coppery taste overriding everything. looking up to his sensei iruka saw the smile on the man's face.  
"that iruka is your liver, its the only organ that can actually heal itself if cut in two pieces. it also has major arteries going to and from it, which can result in major blood loss if injured."  
the boy choked on the blood in his throat trying to expel the tangy liquid. his body jerked again, this time iruka screamed, louder and longer than he ever had before. when the cry finally died on his lips, his head hung limp against his body. another kunai was on the other side of his body.  
"that is your spleen, it houses a large amount of your bodies blood supply at any given time, you can live without it, but most people prefer to keep all their organs. naturally blood loss from this organ is extreme and many can die within minutes of its being punctured."  
gasping for breath, the boy watched as blood fell from his mouth, his saliva not even putting a dent in the amount of bright red expelled from his lips.  
iruka winced as he felt a dulled down version of everything he had felt that day. the pain, oh gods how the pain had reached a new level, higher than anything he'd ever felt before. he'd prayed for death that day, that the concoction his sensei gave him wouldn’t work. it had of course, in a matter of hours his sensei reversed everything he did to him that day leaving him in a heap on the floor trembling as the residual pain from his injuries racked his body. pulling away from the memory, iruka fought kurenai's hold of his mind, he knew she wanted to finish the memory and he wasn’t about to allow that. he was done seeing these things. fighting against her, the chunin pushed and pushed until he felt her resolve slip and finally he was free.

**************

the group watched as iruka's body jerked violently against kakashi once and then again. the man's breathing had picked up and kakashi could feel the mans heart beating hard with his fingers wrapped around the chunin's wrist. looking to kurenai they could tell she was troubled. whatever they were seeing, it was dark.  
a sudden violent jerk and iruka was gasping and falling against kakashi's chest, using it as a lifeline to the real world. his hands came up to grasp his chest, kakashi wrapped his arm around and entangled their fingers as the man felt his own pulse through his jacket. kurenai leaned against asuma, she didn’t look very happy. once iruka had started to calm down she asked.  
"that’s very dangerous"  
iruka nodded his head against kakashi, not bothering to look at kurenai, he knew why she was mad. orochimaru having something like that,the ability to make people live through fatal wounds only to torture them over and over again. catching his breath iruka sputtered.  
"there's no more"  
"he could make more"  
came the surprisingly terse voice from the woman. iruka shook his head, raising himself up to look at her finally.  
"when he ran, all his notes were collected by the third. he had to leave them behind to escape."  
she still didn’t seem happy, taking a deep breath iruka revealed.  
"a month before he left, i had a breakdown. pretty bad one. i broke into his lab and i destroyed everything. he was just starting to recoup what i'd destroyed when the third found out the truth about him. there's nothing left."  
kurenai's eyes softened, she knew she'd regret knowing this but she had to ask.  
"what did he do when he discovered you broke everything?"  
iruka didn’t bother to hide the shudder that racked his body, instead he turned his head to lay against kakashi’s neck. avoiding the question all together. the group was quiet, they could put some things together, they knew orochimaru was good at making things. they'd seen some of his experiments after all, but they had no clue what the two of them were talking about. asuma rubbed kurenai's shoulder before questioning.  
"what did orochimaru have?"  
"he developed a serum, it prevented people from succumbing to their wounds. giving more time for a person to reach medical help."  
"that doesn’t sound so bad?"  
genma stated, kurenai shook her head before continuing.  
"he used it for torture, he could inflict fatal wounds on people and they wouldn’t die. it gave him free reign over them for hours, he could heal them and then just start the whole process over again."  
genma as well as the other members of her team's eyes were wide. something with that kind of power to be used as a torture device, you could do limitlessness things to a persons body before healing them and doing it again, over and over again. kakashi was rubbing iruka's back, holding the chunin to him. the jounin didn’t need to hear it from kurenai to know that it had been used against iruka. he didn’t want to upset iruka, but he also wanted to understand what he'd been put through.  
"what did he do?"  
kurenai looked at him before looking down at the chunin in his arms. at first she wasn’t going to tell him, but thought better of it. if she didn’t say it, iruka would be forced too later.  
"he was trying to convince iruka to kill the third, when he refused, he gave iruka that stuff and-he just stabbed him, no warning nothing, just drove a kunai right into iruka's liver"  
the group couldn’t believe what they were hearing. a wound like that would spell death if not treated as soon as possible and even then there was a greater chance of death.  
"when iruka still refused, he did the same thing with his spleen-iruka fought me off before i could see anything more"  
the group knew that there was more than likely a whole lot more that had transpired that day. with iruka having fought off the illusion there was no way to know if the man would decided to share with them what all he’d endured. sighing kurenai told the group.  
“were done, he’s as ready as he’d going to be. take him home and let him get some rest.”  
kakashi nodded, holding iruka to him kakashi was about to tell them that they would see them tomorrow bright and early when iruka suddenly mumbled something against his neck. leaning down to better hear the man again, kakashi listened as iruka whispered again this time in his ear. eye widening, kakashi tilted his head before asking.  
"you sure?"  
iruka nodded, sighing the jounin looked to his team and said.  
"iruka would like you guys to go out to dinner with us later tonight."  
"of course"  
raidou smiled, his arms around genma in a comforting manner. it was genma who piped up.  
"where does he want to go?"  
iruka mumbled something into kakashi's ear and the man snorted. before chiding the man.  
"that’s not a good idea"  
the others were curious as to what it would take for kakashi to actually deny the chunin something. genma was the one to ask.  
"whats he want?"  
"someplace with strong sake"  
the others smiled gently, they could understand the chunin's want to wash away the memories in a drunken stupor, but the night before his three day exam was not the way to do it.  
"mah we can get wasted after you pass"  
genma shouted. kakashi chuckled at his exuberant teammate. he hoped that the couple hours before dinner time would be enough time for him to help lesson the pain from the memories. looking to iruka he asked.  
" you like that tempura place on court street right?"  
iruka nodded. nodding his head kakashi told the group they'd meet there at 7. without waiting to hear back from them, he made the proper hand signs and him and iruka disappeared in a puff of smoke.

***********

the jounin easily carried iruka to the bedroom where he helped the man get comfortable before crawling in beside him. kakashi didn’t speak, he just wanted to allow the man some time to clear his head.  
they stayed in absolute silence for hours, both completely awake, but not talking. kakashi wasn’t even trying to read his book. he just held iruka and waited. his patience won out when iruka spoke for the first time in three hours.  
"you better have some sake on you when im done with that friggin test"  
kakashi laughed.  
"i'll make sure to pack some in my vest"  
iruka snorted at him before mentioning that it wouldn’t be very comfortable.  
"mah, i've had all sorts of things stashed between me and my armor before, sake wouldn’t be too hard."  
iruka tilted his head back and they looked into each others eyes.  
"im sorry"  
"for what?"  
the jounin asked curiously.  
"for not telling you"  
kakashi shook his head.  
"you don’t have to tell me everything, i don’t expect you to talk about your past like its the weather. just like im sure you don’t expect it of me"  
iruka nodded, allowing his hand to come up and unzip the man's flak jacket suddenly. iruka put his hand over kakashi's heart. he could feel the steady rhythm beneath his fingertips. kakashi understood almost immediately what iruka was doing, he was reassuring himself that it was real, that he was alive. glancing to the clock kakashi suggested.  
“we should probably get ready if you want to go have dinner with everyone. i can cancel if you’d like.”  
iruka shook his head.  
“no, i want to go have dinner with them. the next three days are going to suck as it is, i don’t want to go into that test regretting not having gone to dinner with everyone. i want to have some fun.”  
kakashi nodded his head.  
“then we need to get up.”  
iruka nodded climbing out of bed to take a shower to rinse the sweat of training off before getting into a clean set of clothes. kakashi did the same, though he wasn’t sweaty, he took the time to enjoy a shower before changing and following iruka out the door.

they made good time and were promptly there at 7, it wasn’t more than a couple minutes later that kurenai and asuma walked into view and raidou and genma jumped down from a neighboring rooftop shortly after they arrived. they were all glad to see iruka smiling again and quickly got seated and ordered. it was kakashi who told his team about iruka's threat of wanting sake right after the test. they all got a good laugh. the chunin decided to point out.  
"he says he'd just stick in between the armor, but that has to hurt"  
the others smiled before telling him all the times they've had to stuff scrolls or other important items there just for safe keeping.  
"don’t you get odd bruises then?"  
"oh yeah, i once had a bruise the shape of this stupid relic i was stealing, lasted for two weeks."  
iruka laughed at genma, before saying.  
“i once got a bruise from my teammate hugging me.”  
the anbu looked at him oddly.  
"a hug?"  
iruka smirked.  
" we fell down two flights of stairs because he overbalanced me."  
"ouch"  
iruka nodded he was glad that he could share some of his good memories with them after they had heard so many bad ones. it was raidou who asked.  
"so when you pass what rank mission are you going to try for first"  
iruka laughed before shrugging his shoulders.  
"its been a while since i've been out of the village, i might get lost"  
they laughed and continued telling stories throughout dinner, relishing in each others company. finally at almost half past nine, the group bid goodnight to each other and told iruka to get a good nights sleep. returning to the apartment, iruka waited until the door was closed before assaulting kakashi with a fierce kiss. the nin didn’t argue, just wrapped his arms around iruka and enjoyed himself. eventually they parted and kakashi had to ask.  
"and what did i do to deserve that?"  
smiling iruka laid his head against the man's chest.  
"i think im finally catching onto what naruto always says about you"  
"oh"  
now he was intrigued, he knew quite a few things his previous students had said about him, but iruka made it sound like something good.  
"your freakishly awesome"  
laughing kakashi tightened his hold on the man.  
"really now? that’s a new one"  
iruka leaned back in the hold and nodded.  
"oh yes he's quite certain about it too"  
"well then im glad i've proven myself to fit the title"  
"i know its early, but i should probably get to bed."  
kakashi nodded and much to the surprise of the chunin followed him into the bedroom. turning around iruka told him.  
“you don’t have to go to bed just because i have too”  
kakashi shook his head at iruka before commenting.  
"its going to be a long three days for both of us ne"  
iruka smiled, stripping off their clothes they snuggled in the bed together.  
"im glad your going to be there"  
"me too"  
it wasn’t long before the pair fell asleep. iruka woke up during the night, nightmares plaguing his sleep. he knew better than to move. he'd just wake up kakashi who appeared to be sleeping well. so instead he stayed perfectly still and watched the light patterns on the wall change as the moon came over the hills and went down only to be replaced by the sun. the chunin knew it was almost time for them to get up and wanted to steel a couple more minutes with just him and kakashi. tilting his head back, iruka watched the other ninja sleep for a moment or two before carefully leaning up to kiss the masked man. iruka blinked. a second ago he had been the one on top of kakashi, now the man was on top of him. he waited for kakashi to get his bearings before he even tried to pull his restrained wrists free. once kakashi realized who he was pinning down the jounin groaned and collapsed on top of iruka. the chunin just laughed.  
"its ok, i knew you'd probably react like that"  
"you shouldn’t do that, i could have hurt you"  
iruka shook his head taking the time to nuzzle his face into the mans neck.  
"you wont hurt me"  
kakashi smiled, he was glad to know that iruka trusted him. turning his head to face the chunin he asked.  
“what were you trying to do? steal my mask again?”  
iruka snorted and shook his head a bit.  
"well i was trying to wake you up, which i succeeded, just not in the way i intended."  
"oh?"  
"i was trying to kiss you"  
kakashi smirked and brought their lips together. pulling away a moment later he asked.  
"is that better?"  
"much"  
lifting himself up a bit kakashi looked at the clock, they had a couple more minutes before they needed to get out of bed to prepare. snuggling back down on top of the chunin he kissed the mans neck. with his head hidden in the chunin’s neck kakashi whispered.  
"promise you'll be careful"  
"i'll do my best"  
kakashi nodded, that’s all he could ask of the man.  
"kakashi, could you do something for me?"  
"name it"  
smiling iruka spoke evenly as he said.  
"after this is all done, whether i pass or not, will you let me see your face"  
kakashi chuckled against the mans neck. such a simple request.  
"i think i can manage that"  
iruka smiled, he had wondered if kakashi would say no, he knew the man hid his face for one reason or another. he didn’t want to force the subject, but it would be nice to know what the person who had kissed him so passionately looked like.  
"will you do something for me?"  
"sure"  
iruka said in an amused fashion.  
"set a lot of traps until you know who your facing against"  
iruka snickered, he was glad that kakashi was trying to give him tips at the last minute. but it was good advice.  
"i promise to rig many evil logs in their way"  
kakashi snorted against his neck before saying thank you. lifting himself up off of the chunin below him kakashi rolled off the bed to get ready. they both took showers, knowing it would be days until they got too again. kakashi fixed breakfast and told iruka to eat as much as he could stomach, the man just shook his head.  
"i don’t want to be running on a full stomach"  
"maybe not, but you also don’t want to be running on an empty one either"  
nodding his head iruka conceded to that point. he ate a fair amount and drank his tea before the duo prepared to lock up the apartment. iruka glanced to mayonaka who was wagging her tail. frowning the chunin turned to kakashi.  
“were going to be gone...should you recall her?”  
kakashi glanced towards the ninken and nodded his head. it would be unfair to leave the ninken on her own.  
“i can call her back anytime you want.”  
iruka smiled and nodded as he gave the ninken an affectionate pat on the head.  
“good girl. i’ll see you soon.”  
kakashi effortlessly ended the summons, sending mayonaka back to where ever the summons came from. with the ninken taken care of, the pair turned and headed out of their shared apartment. locking it up before heading to where they would be lead into the forest of death.


	35. the jounin exam pt 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka begins his jounin exam, he quickly learns what he is up against and just how much the odds are stacked against him. refusing to give up, the stubborn chunin presses on, he is not about to let kakashi or his friends down. he's going to pass this damned test if its the last thing he does. meanwhile kakashi and his team begin to realize just how screwed the chunin is upon finding out the 'rules' of iruka's test.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day! its here the beginning of the jounin exam. the majority of the exam is actually in this chapter, though the next one wraps up the test. this might seem short to you, but its actually quite long for me. im not really all that good with actiony things and i feel i pulled this off pretty well. 
> 
> i'll be posting the second chapter right after this one like always. which leaves us with eight more chapters if my math is correct, which is always questionable lol. we are in the home stretch though, there's going to be plenty of angst, love and just overall cuteness so stay tuned. thanks again for all the kudos and comments. we've reached over 2000 hits on the story. amazing!

they met kakashi's team halfway there, the fully armed anbu walked beside him and iruka couldn’t help but chuckle gaining their attention.  
"i either look like the most guarded man in konoha or a dead man walking"  
he heard genma snort behind his mask as they continued down the road. coming through the tree's they came to the beginning of the sealed off forest. the great gates were open today and a single man stood in front. approaching iruka bowed politely before giving his name. the man watched him a moment before nodding.  
"yep your the one, alright-err whats with the anbu?"  
looking over his shoulder iruka smiled at the man.  
"their friends, they have the hokage’s permission to oversea the exam but cannot interfere"  
nodding his head the man shuffled some papers around before making iruka sign some.  
"alright last one, sign this and your all ready to go"  
"you'd think this was a classified mission with the amount of paperwork"  
the man smiled at him and asked.  
“your a chunin, how would you have access to classified paperwork?”  
not taking the man’s comment to heart, iruka replied.  
"i worked in the missions desk and the hokage office until i was moved over to the interrogations team"  
the man seemed shocked to learn that a chunin had access to such things.  
"so am i ready?"  
the man collected himself and nodded.  
"your examiners are already in the forest in random positions. they have no idea where you'll enter so you get some protection from that. however in ten minutes they will start to actively hunt you. you have three days to reach the finish line. you must complete whatever tasks were set for you in that allotted time frame. good luck."  
iruka nodded and took a step towards the entrance, when the guide held out a pack, iruka took the bag he was allowed to have. smiling the chunin shouldered it before turning around and saying to the anbu.  
" see you guys in three days i guess"  
the anbu nodded to him and iruka jogged into the forest. the anbu jumped into the nearest branches and started to follow him silently.

************

iruka had been in the forest for just over two hours now and hadn’t come a crossed anyone, he'd managed to find a small outcropping of stones to use as a base camp and had promptly started making a wide variety of traps around his camp. finishing with the last of the traps, iruka took a break to go through the bag he had been given. he had all his weapons, his typical weapon pouches were full so he didn’t need to worry about out for now, he had no idea where kakashi and his team were, but he knew they were watching his every move. sighing he opened the bag and raised an eyebrow. a scroll was tucked in the very top, pulling it out he examined it for a moment before realizing it wasn’t dangerous. figuring it held some sort of instructions for his exam he undid the seal and unrolled the paper.  
'umino iruka-you will be facing off against three shinobi during your exam. each examiner will test you in a variety of ways from your ability to use stealth and hand to hand combat. you will have three days to complete the following tasks.  
* take one flag from each of your examiners  
* reach each of the three checkpoints  
* place your flags at each of the three checkpoints  
*reach the finish line by midnight of the third day  
further more you are not to engage the anbu who are being allowed to watch over the event, this includes ibiki's hand picked anbu as well as the councils anbu guard who will observing your exam.  
iruka stopped reading long enough to think  
'the council has anbu guard watching as well? i thought it was only going to be kakashi's team'  
looking back at the scroll iruka read the last paragraph on the scroll.  
' due to your specific circumstances,the council respectfully demands that you not use your kekkai genkai during the exam, if you are found to do so, you will fail the exam. the rest of the items in the bag given to you are limited. the council has agreed that your skill set already gives you an unfair advantage towards the examiners who are anticipating a chunin taught by a normal instructor. the use of force will not be tolerated and should you show intent to kill the anbu have orders to end the exam and use force if necessary to restrain you. if you resist deadly force is authorized.'  
sinking back against the rock iruka couldn’t believe what he was reading. they were actually going to ask him to not use his families ability? he knew that the council wouldn’t give him the same tools as a normal exam, but to actually assign some anbu to watch him fight to make sure he wasn’t going to kill someone. did that mean that if he hurt the examiners he'd be killed?  
numbly he dug through the bag to see what else the council had seen fit to give him, there was a canteen, shaking it found it to be empty. of course. putting it aside the chunin dug through to find a single field blanket, standard issue. he folded it and put it next to the canteen. he found the flags he was supposed to guard and quickly tucked them into his vest. he wasn’t about to lose those. he found some vials and after twisting them around he found the labels. antidotes. oh friggin great he was going against someone with poison.  
"like this isn’t going to be hard enough they have to include a poison artist?"  
iruka muttered as he tucked the vials into his vest, he found two ration bars, more than he thought they would give him and a map. he analyzed the map to see where the nearest checkpoint was, he had no doubt that the examiners would find him, no reason to go hunting for them when they'd come to him. he'd focus on getting his flags to the checkpoints and go from there.   
repacking the bag, he took a moment to think. this was not going to be an easy three days, he hadn’t expected it to be, but he idly wondered what the anbu exam was like. shaking his head he stood up and looked around, he might as well get a head start. jumping into the tree's he took off through the branches.

************

the anbu followed the chunin through the forest and watched as he used a rocky outcropping as a temporary base. staying in the tree's they observed one another, they were spread out in a protective circle around the man, were it a normal mission iruka would have been more protected than the hokage on a normal day. as it was they weren’t allowed to interfere so they hunkered down and watched as iruka set a circle of traps around his resting point before taking a seat and opening the bag. he pulled out a scroll first, they watched as iruka read the instructions. they frowned when they saw iruka slump against the rock. what was it he was reading? they heard iruka sigh before re-wrapping the scroll and setting it aside.   
iruka pulled out a canteen, he shook it and threw it aside, they assumed it was empty by his reaction. they saw the typical field blanket that they doubted the man would be able to actually use, next came a set of three flags which they could guess was a part of his challenges. iruka was smart enough to put them in his vest before he moved on. they couldn’t see what he had in his hands next, it was too small. but what they heard sent a chill up their spines.  
"like this isn’t going to be hard enough they have to include a poison artist?"  
poison! the council was going to use poison against him? that could only mean that iruka was holding the antidotes for the poison. they watched as iruka placed the vials in his vest. making sure they were safe. glancing to one another they could read each others expressions without having to see more than each others eyes. there was shock, anger, concern, fear, and disappointment. they would definitely have something to talk about tonight.  
iruka finished going through the rest of the bag finding some ration bars and a map which he examined before packing up and heading presumably towards his first goal. they followed without a sound.

***********

iruka was able to fill his canteen at a small creek before he continued on towards the first checkpoint. after taking a swig of the cold water the chunin couldn’t resist letting them know.  
"this water tastes like piss just so you know"  
the anbu who were hidden smiled, even though they couldn’t respond they were glad that iruka was finding some way to relieve the stress even if he was technically talking to himself.  
it wasn’t long before iruka stopped high in the tree tops, peering around one of the large trunks he hunkered down before pulling out his map. nodding he tucked it away before jumping down from the branches to land softly in the grass at the base of the tree trunk. looking around the chunin carefully made his way through the underbrush to finally break through to see a small stand, it was obviously where a flag was supposed to go. taking a deep breath iruka used all his senses to see if there was anyone around him. when all of his senses gave him the all clear he looked for the usual traps. he was easily able to avoid them and once at the alter like podium, he inspected it carefully to make sure it wouldn’t cause him any harm. he knew he was probably being more paranoid then he needed to be, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. pulling out a flag he placed it in the container and jumped back as a sudden flare shot off into the sky. showing his exact position.  
"oh shit"  
darting for cover the chunin dived into the nearest bush and didn’t move a muscle. running away at this point would only give himself away, it was better to stay and hide. if he was lucky the examiner might not see him. it wasn’t even a minute before a man came darting into the area. he inspected the alter and nodded seeing that it was an assigned flag. then he began searching. iruka steadied his breathing, he knew his best bet was to stay low to the ground and ride out the man's inspection unless he was caught.

the anbu watching iruka watched how careful he was with entering the field, his inspection of the traps and the alter, when the flare went off they all winced. silently urging the man to find cover. they all sighed in relief when iruka dived into a bush right before one of the examiners appeared. they watched as the man walked around, yet glancing back they were shocked to see iruka in the same spot he had hid in. why wasn’t he moving? why wasn’t he just phasing through a tree and running for it? they got their answer when the examiner took one too many steps and suddenly found himself up to his neck in dirt.  
iruka bolted towards the man who was struggling with his quicksand jutsu, ripping the flag from the mans vest he ran for it.  
ah, so iruka had a secondary objective to get flags off of the examiners he was facing. that would be a tough thing for him to do, even though he was already ahead of the game, they weren’t surprised when it only took the examiner a minute to get out of the trap and give chase. they followed suit to see who was going to win, iruka or the examiner.  
iruka made sure to zig zag through the forest instead of just going straight in one direction, but he knew that the man was quickly gaining on him, he was a seasoned jounin after all. thinking fast the chunin rigged up a quick trap to slow the man down and was off again. he jumped into the high branches of a tree and continued from there hoping to make the man lose his trail by keeping to the foliage.  
the anbu watched as iruka rigged a simple but effective trap before taking off once more. quickly taking his chase through the tree's. the examiner didn’t fall for the trap though and was gaining on iruka. all they could do is hope that iruka would either be able to lose the ninja in the forest or beat him in battle.  
iruka darted around a tree, to catch his breath. he hadn’t heard his trap go off which was a bad sign. how he wished he could just vanish into a tree for a couple minutes, but that wasn’t an option if he wished to pass. iruka knew that his friends were probably confused as to why he wasn’t using his normal skills that he had used against them and he was going to tell them as soon as he lost the examiner. he might as well fill them in on how screwed he was. he felt the man's chakra signature come within 30 ft of the tree he was hiding behind. holding his breath iruka refused to let it out until the man's signature dissipated as he left the area. letting out the breath he had been holding the chunin sucked in air in giant gasps. sliding down the tree trunk he rested his legs for a moment. iruka knew he would have to get moving, he needed to get out of the immediate area to get as much distance between him and the examiner as possible.   
looking up to the sky he figured now was as good as anytime to let the anbu watching over him know.  
"alright guys, their playing hard ball with me. im sure you saw the antidotes for poison, cant wait to meet whoever has that up their sleeve."  
he patted the pouch where the vials were.  
"the scroll gave me a list of things to do, not overly hard things except their of course protected by guys like him. that’s not the worst of it though."  
looking straight ahead iruka sighed before saying.  
"im forbidden from using my kekkai genkai. if i do i fail automatically. on top of that lovely piece of information if i hurt any of the examiners i fail, or as they put it show deadly intent."  
he used air quotes for the deadly intent part figuring that they could see him from where ever they were.  
"and finally you guys aren’t alone-there's other anbu out here watching, they have special instructions i guess, if i do something they don’t like they get to fail me i guess though it sounded more like they'd get to beat the crap out of me"  
he unrolled the scroll that he'd stored in the bag and used a senbon to pierce it to the tree he was leaning against.  
"there, i'll leave that for you guys to read. i already know what i have to do, well better get going. daylight is a wasting"  
hoping to the neighboring tree iruka paused long enough to say.  
"oh and wolf, you owe me lots and lots of sake"  
with that said the chunin darted off, heading towards his next goal.

*********

they sat perched above iruka as the man started to talk to them.   
"alright guys, their playing hard ball with me. im sure you saw the antidotes for poison, cant wait to meet whoever has that up their sleeve."  
iruka patted the pouch where the vials were. the anbu smiled at the chunin, they were sure he could handle it. so long as he was careful.  
"the scroll gave me a list of things to do, not overly hard things except their of course protected by guys like him. that’s not the worst of it though."  
they silently wondered what iruka was talking about when the chunin filled them in on the game at hand.  
"im forbidden from using my kekkai genkai. if i do i fail automatically. on top of that lovely piece of information if i hurt any of the examiners i fail, or as they put it show deadly intent."  
that was illegal, you couldn’t just tell a hyuga not to use their eyes or a nara to not use their shadow jutsu. and not hurt the examiners? this was a fucking test for crying out loud. injuries were to be expected. the group of anbu were fuming on their friends behalf.  
"and finally you guys aren’t alone-there's other anbu out here watching, they have special instructions i guess, if i do something they don’t like they get to fail me i guess though it sounded more like they'd get to beat the crap out of me"  
iruka unrolled the scroll that he'd stored in the bag and used a senbon to pierce it to the tree he was leaning against.  
the anbu were skeptical if there were indeed more anbu out here, so far they hadn’t crossed paths with any of their brethren, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out here somewhere. however allowing higher ranked ninja like anbu to use force against a competitor, that wasn’t right and they knew it. they were glad that iruka had thought to leave the scroll with them. they would read it and keep it for evidence in case they needed to bring anything before the hokage when this was all over. the group watched as iruka jumped to another tree before turning around and saying.  
"oh and wolf, you owe me lots and lots of sake"  
they held back their laughter as they watched the chunin progress through the trees. once he was out of the immediate area they jumped down to investigate the scroll. kakashi tore it from the senbon and read it quickly before handing it to asuma.  
"bastards"  
they passed it around until they had all read it, kakashi stored it in his vest. he wouldn’t be losing this important document that was for sure.  
"come on, lets catch up to him."  
nodding they sprinted to catch up to the chunin.

********

just as the sun was setting iruka managed to find a good overhang to hide under. he was no fool, he knew he wouldn’t be able to see in the dark and to try and progress would just be foolish. he didn’t bother to make a fire as that would just give away his position, so instead he thought about his progress. he'd made good ground today, he'd gotten rid of a flag and gained one from an examiner. he took a swig of piss water and grimaced at the taste. gods he wanted some tea. leaning against the rock the chunin prepared himself for another long evening of staying awake. looking out into the inky blackness he sighed. he wished that they could talk back to him, just to let him know that they truly were there watching over him. iruka knew that they wouldn’t leave him, but he had no idea if the hokage would summon them away for emergencies or if the council would interfere and force them to leave.  
"its going to be a long night, so get comfy kids"  
he smiled, before picking up a kunai and starting to draw in the dirt with it, it served two purposes, it kept him entertained and he was armed.

*********

they caught up with iruka just as he was making his little base camp. there were traps around the surrounding area and he was smart enough to go without a fire. using a special night vision jutsu they were able to continue watching iruka as the sun faded from view and night crept around them.  
"its going to be a long night, so get comfy kids"  
smiling behind their masks they watched as iruka entertained himself with drawing in the dirt with a kunai.  
it was a couple hours later that they noticed movement in the distance. an examiner for sure. it seemed that he too was using the night vision jutsu because he seemed to zero in on iruka. frowning they were amazed at what lengths the council were going to make this harder on iruka. all they could do was watch as the man crept closer to iruka, intending to catch him off guard.  
'come on iruka, do something'  
kakashi thought as he watched the man come practically behind iruka, a kunai ready to be plunged into the mans back.  
'turn around damn it'  
he almost wanted to turn away, but couldn’t bring himself not to watch.the kunai came down in a sharp arch meant to catch iruka in the shoulder, a none fatal blow, but one that would seriously hinder the mans ability to fight. the team tensed as the kunai collided with iruka, but smiled as the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. looking around they tried to find the real iruka, he didn’t seem to be anywhere.  
'come on iruka where are you?'  
and just like that iruka came down from the branches above, his own kunai ready to hit the examiner. the man easily avoided the blow by jumping out of the way. they could tell that iruka was practically blind in the dark by the way he was rapidly blinking.   
the examiner was smiling as he crept around the nin silently. then iruka stepped into action, stomping fiercely on the ground sending off a chain reaction. wires sprung up from below the shallow dirt, criss crossing only to wrap around the examiner and anything in the area minus a hole in the direct middle of the pattern where iruka stood. the examiner was bound tightly and slammed against a tree. rushing over to the sound of the man colliding iruka had a little trouble finding the second flag, but once he had he was off. not even bothering to grab the deserted pack on the ground. he'd already secured the canteen to his belt and the ration bars were in his leg pouch. he had everything he needed for the next couple days of hell.  
iruka kept running, for what seemed like forever, he wanted to get a large distance between him and the angry examiner who he had left tied to a tree. skidding to a stop the chunin took a quick breather, the sun was just starting to bring light back into the world and he was eternally grateful for that. being blind was not something he wanted to experience long term. deciding he had gone far enough, he climbed a tree and braced himself in the fork of some branches to relax a bit. his legs were tired, even being infused with chakra he was starting to feel the burn in them. he stayed in the tree until the sun had risen over the hills giving just enough light for him to read his map and figure out his position relative to the next goal. once he had ascertained where he was in relation to his next goal iruka jumped down from the tree and was off in search of the next alter.

they were immensely proud of him, he'd done well in the fight for being at a distinct disadvantage and managed to get his second flag from an examiner. if things continued this way iruka might just be able to finish early. they followed along as the man traversed the terrain to find the next alter. it wasn’t until well after mid day that he finally found it, by then he was sweating from the humidity and the sun beating down on him. hunkering down iruka watched the alter for clues as to what traps might be around it. he knew that a flare would most likely go off as soon as he put his flag down. so he took his time scouting the area and placing his own traps over the ones already in place, making a domino effect for the examiners, all he needed was for one to go off for the people hunting him to be in a world of hurt. smiling to himself the chunin approached the alter and after fishing out the next flag took a deep breath and placed it in the holder. he froze waiting for the flare to go off. but at first nothing happened. feeling naturally tense, he was about to back up when he heard it. the sizzling.  
"oh come on"  
he ran for all he was worth but couldn’t totally avoid the blast radius as the alter exploded throwing him into some trees. iruka's world swirled around him, off kilter. he knew he needed to get up and run, but his body wasn’t responding. coughing he tried to get air in his abused body. rolling to the side iruka was able to get to his elbows when he could just barely make out the sounds of running. cursing he quickly got to his knees before bolting, swaying as he ran. the chunin couldn’t tell which direction he was going, but any direction was better than sticking around to be found by an examiner. he crashed through brush and slammed into tree's as he went. iruka knew he was being anything but stealthy at that point, but he couldn’t get the world to stop spinning. crashing into another tree he swung around it from the blow and crashed to the ground. his entire body ached.

the anbu watched as iruka took his time analyzing before setting his own traps, they watched as he then approached the alter and after fishing out the flag and sighing placed it in its holder. but unlike last time. no flare went off. immediately they were on guard. something was not right.  
'run iruka'  
they hated being right, they saw alarm come across their friends face as he said 'oh come on' before he ran, they couldn’t hold back their collective gasps as the alter exploded throwing the man into a cropping of trees. their hearts pounded as iruka just lay there. they couldn’t tell from their vantage point if he was seriously hurt or not. fists clenching they nearly cheered when they saw him roll over to climb to his feet. they could hear the examiner coming and were pleading with iruka to get moving. finally unstable on his feet iruka ran. they followed only a few feet behind as he crashed through the forest. they winced, the chunin wasn’t being quiet in his attempts to run away. finally they had to stop when iruka fell to the ground again.  
'come on iruka you can do it'  
kurenai pleaded with the man, she had a hold of asumas hand and they squeezed each others fingers in hopes that the man could hear their pleas for him.   
iruka groaned, unable to hold in the ache his body was showing him. once again he rolled over and using the tree as a support climbed to his feet. the world swayed and he had to lean against the tree. taking in a deep breath he took a catalog of his injuries, no broken or bruised ribs thank god. but a severe concussion. trying to walk in a straight line almost ended him on his ass again. clinging to the tree he'd managed to stumble to iruka rubbed his temple. the ringing in his ears wasn’t helping either. his head was pounding.  
"gods this is worse than a hangover"  
he tried to shake his head, but that only made it worse, this fog wasn’t going to lift anytime soon. iruka knew he needed to keep going, but he didn’t know where too. he struggled to pull the map out and had to squint his eyes to even be able to read the moving object. finding his location he tucked it back away. he only had two more flags to deal with then he could run to the finish line.  
"two more ok, just two more"  
pushing away from the tree the chunin wobbled, but managed to stay upright. slowly he started to walk through the forest in the correct direction. he could only hope no one found him as he tried to regain his bearings.  
they could tell he had a concussion, it was plain to see. he was slow to respond and over compensated for movements that should have been fluid. looking to one another the anbu squad were beginning to doubt whether iruka was going to be able to continue.  
the chunin trudged through the woods for hours, even as the sun started to set behind him. he just kept moving in the right direction, refusing to stop because he knew that with the head wound he had, he was liable to not get back up again. he had to just keep moving. he had to stay awake. iruka stopped occasionally to rest against a tree, before pressing off of it to move on. once night had fallen and he could no longer see where he was walking the chunin braced his back against a tree and slid to the ground. it took him a bit to figure out what he was going to do next. he really wished it hadn’t come to this, but he was growing desperate. biting his thumb he made the seal and summoned them.  
they followed the slow moving chunin, he managed to keep going even as the sun set, but they knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up that kind of pace in the dark. sure enough the chunin ended up sitting below a tree. for a while he was silent, but then they watched as he bit his thumb and performed the necessary seals for the summons jutsu. they were taken back when not one, but three snakes appeared. they were all rather small when you considered other summons sizes.  
"i need you to stand guard, im in the middle of an exam and i have a head wound. you cant bite anyone understand"  
the snake lifted their heads and regarded their summoner for a moment before one of them spoke up.  
"you wish for us to guard you, but not guard you"  
"yes"  
"foolish boy what do we look like to you pets?"  
iruka managed to shake his head, though it was forced and he grit his teeth while doing so.  
"your not pets, your my summons and im commanding you to stand guard. until the sun comes up, then your free to go"  
the snake in charge grumbled before commenting.  
"there are people in the trees"  
smiling iruka looked up his eyes never even coming close to where they were hiding.  
"their fine, their just watching the exam. they wont try to hurt me. there are others though that will"  
"very well"  
two of the snakes slithered off, the anbu quickly lost track of them in the dark forest. they were intrigued when one snake stayed behind, crawling up iruka’s body to curl around his neck.  
"you shouldn’t have allowed yourself to get so damaged"  
iruka snorted dryly at the creature wrapped around his neck.  
"thanks, its not like i did this on purpose"  
"you'd be stronger than this if you had just gone with him"  
the anbu froze. the snakes were trying to convince iruka to desert konoha. to join orochimaru.  
"actually i'd probably be dead, but that’s besides the point"  
" you haven’t called us in a long time"  
iruka was silent a moment before he informed the serpent.  
"people in the village fear you because of him"  
"they should"  
iruka snorted before saying.  
"your not all high and mighty like manda, some of you are nice"  
"don’t let the word get out or we'll have snot nosed kids wanting to order us around"  
iruka chuckled at the snake, reaching up he pet its white head.  
"i promise not to say a word"  
the anbu watched in stunned silence as iruka continued to have a weird but somewhat normal conversation with the white snake.  
"who are they"  
"in the tree's?'  
"yes"  
"friends"  
iruka reached up to rub his forehead, god it was killing him.  
"how many tails do you see"  
the snake coiled its tail around irukas face for him to see it dangling there. iruka laughed.  
"you really don’t want the answer to that"  
"i see, how did you get injured"  
"explosive tag"  
"your normally so good with those"  
iruka smiled, he really did like this particular snake. it was one of the few that could hold a normal conversation without throwing death threats around.  
"it was pretty well hidden this time, never suspected a thing until i heard it"  
"well you must have gotten far enough away because your not burnt to a crisp"  
iruka adjusted himself against the tree before answering.  
"yeah i ran for it, didn’t quite make it though"  
"what is the point of this exam"  
the snake asked curiously.  
"its to make me a jounin in the village"  
"tired of teaching brats then?"  
iruka smiled at the snake, knowing that it could see his facial expressions in the dark.  
"no, i love what i did, but with things changing in the village, i had to change too"  
"you could always come home with us"  
iruka turned his head towards the snake coiled around his neck.  
"no-i cant, i have people i love in the village, i have people to protect"  
"against him"  
"yes and others like him"  
the snake bobbed its head in understanding.  
"i'll make sure to get you guys some fresh mice when im back in the village"  
"that would be appreciated"  
iruka closed his eyes, it wasn’t like he could see anything anyways. he must have started to doze off, because he didn’t remember his head being against his chest, his head jerked up and he winced when the snake bit him in the neck.  
"im up im up"  
"stay awake"  
"watch where you bite alright, your teeth are sharp"  
"then they serve their purpose"  
the anbu had watched the conversation go on for some time between iruka and the snake, they frowned when they noticed iruka’s head start to droop. they knew falling asleep with a head injury like that wouldn’t be a good idea. it seemed they didn’t have to worry too much about that, because they watched as the small snake lunged forward and bit iruka in the neck. they winced and silently hoped it was poisonous. it did the trick though, iruka’s head jolted up and he started to talk again.   
this continued on through the night, iruka would start to fall asleep only to be bitten by the small snake. by the time morning came he had quite the collection of bites on his neck. no examiner ever found him that night and the two other snakes never returned. once it was light enough iruka lowered the snake summons to the ground and stood up, using the tree for support.  
"thank you for your help, i'll call on you again if i need you"  
the snake nodded and slithered out of sight. sighing iruka began the slow progress towards the final alter.   
they watched as iruka began his walk through the forest and were about to trail him, when genma nearly screamed, turning to face their teammate, their eyes widened. the small white snake that had been helping iruka all night was right in front of genma.  
"are you afraid"  
"you startled me, what do you want"  
genma bit out tersely. the snake turned around to gaze at all of them.  
"how much longer is his test?"  
"he's got one more day, if he doesn’t finish by then he fails. why?"  
"he may not last that long"  
the snake started to coil itself around the branch as if to move back down the tree when genma asked.  
"your not poisonous are you? you bit him a lot"  
the snake tilted its head before responding.  
"regardless of if i am or not, it is better he deal with the side effects of me than fall into a coma from a head wound."  
with that the small snake poofed away leaving them with no clear answer as to whether the chunin had been poisoned by the snake.  
"well that’s just wonderful, he let himself be bit like ten times by that damned thing."  
raidou tried to soothe his boyfriend, but kakashi interrupted.  
"the snakes right though, iruka might have some resistance to the venom and its better then him possibly falling into a coma because of his head injury."  
the others nodded, they knew kakashi wasn’t happy about the situation any more than they were, but just like them, his hands were tied. with nothing more to talk about the group raced off to catch up with iruka, they knew at his present pace the chunin couldn’t have gone far.  
they were able to catch up to the man pretty easily, iruka although more coordinated was still by far not being as careful as he was before the head injury. he did appear to be know what he was doing though, he was definitely heading towards a goal and not weaving in and out of trees like he had before.  
iruka managed to stumble upon a creek and took the time to refill his dwindling water supply. taking a drink he still grimaced at the taste. was all the water out here contaminated or had they done something to the water supply just for him? he wouldn’t put it past the council to do so. re-securing his canteen to his side iruka made his way towards the final alter.


	36. the jounin exam pt 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in the middle of his exam, iruka is taken by surprise by one of the examiners intent on stopping his progress. though he manages to elude them, its not without consequences. iruka is left wondering if he is going to manage to finish the test or if this set back will be enough to see him fail. kakashi and his team look on, watching over the chunin as he struggles with the test and all its requirements. there is nothing they can do, but watch and wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day. the jounin exam continues. your all going to hate me lol, this ends with a cliffhanger. cause yeah im just that evil. you'll love tomorrows opening chapter mwahahaahahah, but you have to wait for it. 
> 
> keep on sending all the love my way, i'll see you guys tomorrow for another two chapters.

it took iruka two hours to finally find it, but like all the times before he made sure to cover his tracks and observe the scenery before approaching. unlike the previous two there were no obvious traps, which just made iruka all the more nervous. approaching the alter he made sure to glance around to ensure no enemy was going to surprise him. he was totally alone however, except for the anbu watching him.  
they watched as iruka approached the final alter and like him were nervous, there were no set traps in the area, no noise, nothing. it was too easy.  
iruka took a deep breath before pulling out the final flag and placing it in the holder before jumping back in case it had an explosive in it. but nothing happened. frowning he backed up some more. he knew it was too easy, turning to book it out of the area he stilled, something was nagging at him. turning around he crept closer to the alter, something had to be going on here. his intuition told him to be wary but to investigate.  
they watched as iruka placed the flag in the holder before jumping a safe distance away. the chunin was prepared for anything, when nothing happened they sighed in relief. they were about to follow the chunin out of the area when iruka turned back around and went back towards the alter. they glanced to one another, something wasn’t right here. silently they urged iruka to just move on, but their silent pleas were unanswered as iruka approached the alter again and glanced around it.  
looking around the alter, he knelt down and was about to stand up when something caught his eye. looking up he smiled. a scroll was tucked up under the alter. most likely with more instructions that would fail him if he didn’t complete. snagging the scroll he made sure to get out of the area in case something happened from him taking it. still nothing happened. frowning he examined the scroll carefully before unsealing it.  
'umino iruka-if you've managed to get this far congratulations, you've managed to get farther than we had hoped you would. as such we thought it only fitting to hide the scroll from you to test your observation skills. moving on, once you have collected your three flags from the examiners you will have a limited amount of time to backtrack to the beginning of the course. find the first alter and retrieve the flag you placed there. it will have been replaced with a red flag. this flag is the only way to open the finish line gate to escape the exam. without it you will fail.'  
iruka blinked for a moment, the beginning of the course was almost two days ago, how was he supposed to go back and get all the way to the finish line in time? he'd have to run the entire way and even then he might not make it. frowning he took only a moment to collect his thoughts before darting through the woods back the way he had came. he knew he should let kakashi and his team know what he was doing, but he could do that while running and he was running out of time. he still had to get one more flag from an examiner and find the red flag then get all the way to the finish line to pass. his head ached terribly with each jump through the trees, but he couldn’t focus on that. he had a mission to complete. he wasn’t going to let kakashi and his team down, not after all they'd done for him.   
running through the forest, leaping from one branch to the next he called out.  
"change of plans guys. i have to go back to the beginning to find a red flag at the first alter. that’s the only way the gate at the end of the course will open. without it i fail. i still need one more flag from an examiner too, and they didn’t give me any extra time to complete this so we have to book it there and back"

the anbu team watched as iruka retrieved a scroll from the alter. smiling they watched as iruka unsealed it and began to read. he stood there for a minute or two before putting the scroll in his jacket and taking off the way he had came. frowning they followed him. it wasn’t long before the chunin told them why he was going in reverse. gritting their teeth they could only hope that iruka's chakra reserves would hold out as he pushed them to the limit to increase his speed.  
it was only an hour later in his race back to the beginning that iruka had to dodge three senbon that lodged themselves in the tree he had just been on. cursing iruka ducked down to try and find the assailant. no dice. rolling forward he was able to avoid two more. damn it they could see him, but he couldn’t see them. running was his only option until he could smoke them out of hiding. so he ran. dodging in and out of tree's to make the assailants senbon hit the logs instead of him. making some clones they split up and tried to confuse the person chasing him. it seemed to work because the chunin felt one of the clones die a couple meters to his left. smiling he knew there was a gap between them and he might be able to make it bigger if he was careful. coming around a tree iruka paused, controlling his breathing he laid his trap down. now he had to wait and see if he would catch anything.  
the anbu cursed when they watched senbon pierce the tree that iruka had just been on, the chunin was a fast thinker and began to confuse the person chasing him with clones. it seemed to work because the shadow that had been chasing him veered off to the left after a clone instead of the real iruka. what surprised them however was that iruka wasn’t running. he was laying down a trap and waiting. they knew he needed one more flag, but they weren’t sure if this was the best way to go about getting it. so they held their breaths and waited along with the chunin to see if he got lucky.  
pinned against the tree to hide himself, iruka felt the chakra signature come his way. only a little farther, a little more, just one more gotcha. smiling he pulled the string and instantly the web of wires snapped around the person and threw them to the ground below. jumping down he saw the woman squirming. he darted forward to find the flag, but frowned when he found nothing, that’s when iruka saw her smile. eyes widening he had just enough time to turn around before a piercing pain erupted in his side, as the ninja right behind him, stabbed him with a senbon. the needle piercing the flak jacket and slicing into him. groaning, iruka gasped at the sudden pain before registering what was in front of him. before the enemy could do anything more, the chunin slammed his head against the woman’s, hearing the distinct crack of a nose breaking. with the woman disabled at least temporarily iruka lunged forward to snatch the flag before darting off into the woods. he heard the woman cursing as her now broken nose bled down her front. iruka just kept running until he couldn’t any longer.  
they watched as iruka’s trap worked and threw the woman to the ground. they froze when iruka didn’t seem to grab a flag and run only to nearly scream out a warning to the man when the woman appeared behind him. iruka turned just in time to get stabbed with the woman’s senbon. the anbu bit their tongues as they saw the pain lace through iruka’s face. before the chunin did the unexpected and headbutted the woman, breaking her nose on contact, asuma had a hard time not crying out in joy as iruka stole the flag and darted into the forest. they sped after him, leaving the cursing woman to rub her now broken face.

****************************

iruka panted as he ran, it was getting harder and harder for him to run, he'd been speeding through the tree's for so long using his chakra and then his little encounter with the examiner had happened. he slowed down to brace himself against a tree and looked down to the senbon still piercing his side. the chunin winced. god it hurt. it hadn’t hit anything vital, but he was hesitant to pull it out, he might leave a blood trail if he did. sighing iruka did the only thing he could think of. using a kunai he cut the bottom of his shirt off, exposing his stomach to the chilly air to use the cloth as a makeshift bandage. taking a deep breath he ripped the senbon out in a fast motion and hissed in pain as it came free. blood started pouring as soon as it was no longer holding back the life giving fluid. using the cloth he'd removed he tied it around his chest as tight as he could stand it, to hopefully stop the bleeding if not at least slow it down. taking a deep breath he muttered.  
"well that was close"  
the anbu followed after iruka, only slowed when he did. watching as the chunin came to a stop they saw him look down at his wound and wince. they watched as he removed a stretch of fabric from his own shirt and made a makeshift bandage after ripping the senbon out of himself. they waited as he caught his breath before he began to move on. he had a long way to go and little time to do it.  
iruka made good time and after only getting lost in the starting area for 45 minutes managed to find the first alter, a red flag standing proud. nodding his head he jumped over the traps and snatched it before running for the tree line. he wasn’t overly surprised when the alter sent off another flare into the sky alerting the examiners that he was heading towards the finish line now. smiling to himself iruka couldn’t believe how well he'd been doing. sure he had a head injury and now a senbon wound, but overall he was doing pretty good. he was sure to have chakra exhaustion by the end, but kakashi had already warned him about that. by now it was just past midday giving him just under eleven hours to complete the final task of crossing the finish line. nodding his head iruka raced for the finish line. he had a date with an anbu captain and sake.  
once iruka had stolen the red flag and bolted back to the original path of the course they couldn’t help but start to celebrate, he had all the flags needed including the final red one, now all he had to do was cross the finish line before midnight tonight.  
"he's gonna make it"  
genma called out to his teammates. they nodded as they trailed after iruka. it wasn’t until an hour later that they started to see something was amiss with the chunin they were following, his usually fluid movements started becoming off kilter. he slipped a couple times on the branches before righting himself. looking to one another they asked  
"is his chakra gone?"  
kakashi glanced at the man with his sharingan and frowned.  
"no, he's low, but not dangerously so"  
"then whats wrong with him?"  
they continued to follow iruka, hoping that there was nothing seriously wrong with the chunin and that he was just starting to feel the effects of the three day exam.  
iruka knew something was wrong when he started to have problems balancing on his jumps from tree to tree. he knew it was growing more serious when his vision started to act up. and he knew he was really in trouble when he missed the branch all together and couldn’t right himself before crashing to the ground below. iruka lay there face down in the mud, huffing out a couple deep breaths before rolling over with a groan. god his head hurt, not that his side was much better, but he was beginning to feel all of his aches and pains. staring up at the sky iruka blinked to clear his vision only to realize he couldn’t. frowning he tried to separate the clouds from the sky, but found it was all one giant blur. dread crept up his spine, all the signs were there. reaching into his vest he pulled out the senbon that had pierced his side. bringing it up for him to analyze he cursed himself for not noticing earlier. a light green film coated the weapon. poison.  
the anbu watched as iruka started to teeter in each jump, slipping occasionally but always managing to catch himself. until finally he didn’t. their eyes widened as they watched iruka plummet to the ground, no one to catch him as he hit the hard ground below. wincing they jumped down a couple limbs to be able to see him better. iruka wasn’t moving from where he had fallen to the ground. looking to one another they began to worry if he was even conscious. finally iruka moved, rolling over to his back. smiling behind their masks their smiles fell when they saw the confusion on iruka’s face as he stared at the sky, before reaching into his vest to pull out the bloody senbon. they watched as he looked at it for a moment. they couldn’t tell why he was looking at it so fiercely until the light caught it just right and genma cursed, turning to him they heard him mutter.  
"poison"

****************************

eyes widening they turned back to watch iruka. he had antidotes with him, sure it would take a while to kick in, but he wasn’t in any real danger so long as he took them now. they waited, but after setting the senbon on his chest iruka didn’t do anything.   
'come on iruka take the damn medicine'  
kakashi shouted in his head. finally iruka reached into his vest and they sighed in relief when he pulled out a clear vial with fluid in it. smiling they watched as he broke the seal and downed the contents, making a horrible face at the taste.  
"how long genma?"  
kakashi asked, he wanted to know how long it would take for the antidote to kick in and allow iruka to continue. the senbon user leaned forward to get a better look at both the senbon and the vial iruka had thrown aside.  
"an hour, he's waited longer than he should have"  
kakashi nodded, they settled in to watch the man as he rested.  
iruka had taken the damn antidote, it tasted worse than his piss water. he could feel the tingling in his body as the poison had spread. he should have realized what had happened sooner. sighing the chunin relaxed and calmed his racing heartbeat, it wouldn’t do him any good to get excited and the medicine should kick in soon. it was ten minutes later that iruka turned and hurled. coughing out the last of the vomit he rolled back onto his back. god this sucked.  
the anbu watched as iruka was suddenly sick. wincing as the man heaved before calming again. it was genma who made them start to worry.  
"he shouldn’t have done that"  
looking to their teammate they questioned with their eyes alone what he meant.  
"i know he's sensitive to stuff, but he shouldn’t have vomited from it."  
"maybe its from the medicine?"  
kurenai spoke quietly. genma shook his head again.  
"no, if anything it would make him sleepy"  
they continued to watch as iruka lay in the shade, after thirty minutes nothing much had changed. iruka hadn’t vomited again which made them feel better, but he also didn’t even seem to be trying to move. just past the hour mark, the chunin rolled to his side and climbed to his feet. smiling they were glad to see him up and moving. it was short lived as he crashed back to the ground. iruka panted on his hands and knees for a moment before trying again and succeeding to stay upright. it was slow, but he began walking through the forest, sticking to the ground as he didn’t trust his shaky legs or blurry vision to keep him stable in a tree. he'd already fallen once, he didn’t wish to repeat it again.  
before they took off after the struggling man, genma hoped down to the forest floor and collected the senbon and vial, he didn’t have time to evaluate now, but he would later on. the anbu watched as iruka struggled through the forest, leaning heavily against tree's, this continued for two hours before iruka slid to the base of a tree panting. his forehead glistening with sweat. he was exhausted and he still had so far to go.  
seeing iruka taking a break and expecting to be there at least for a few minutes, genma took out a small box from his side pouch, raidou leaned over to see what he was doing.  
"seeing what type of poison it is, i thought it was kenu, but i might be wrong with the way he's reacting"  
the anbu waited as genma swabbed the senbon before putting the swab on a chemical sheet. it turned an eery purple. genma's eyes widened.  
"whats wrong?"  
asuma asked, genma was their poison expert, for him to react like that, it made the man nervous. glancing up to this teammates, he shook his head before swabbing the vial as he spoke.  
"its not kenu that’s for sure. reacted like yil poison, not too much of that around fire country which is why i was surprised."  
"why are you testing the vial?"  
kurenai asked with a sense of dread.  
"want to make sure their using the top grade medicine for it. not the watered down shit that takes a week to work out of your system."  
they nodded, they knew what it could mean if iruka was given the watered down stuff. he would continue to feel the poisons effects until the antidote took full effect which could take days. genma put the swab on another slip of chemical paper and waited for it to change color. looking down to check on the chunin while he waited. nothing had changed. iruka was still leaning against the tree, his eyes shut. shaking his head, genma glanced back to the paper in his hand expecting to see a blue color or at worst a yellow. he blinked frowning, he pulled out another swab and did the test over. it did not go unnoticed by his teammates.  
"genma?"  
the man in question shook his head as he waited for the results. again the test changed colors, but it still didn’t reveal anything close to what he was hoping for. the slip was orange. looking up to his team captain who was waiting for an answer, genma's voice caught in his throat. he didn’t know how to say this to kakashi-he knew how he felt about the chunin.  
"genma-whats it say"  
raidou prodded, his lover was starting to worry them. shaking out of his reverie genma looked down to iruka, he could see now that what they thought had been sweat, was a fever beginning to ravage the man below him.  
"its the wrong one"  
"what? whats wrong?"  
asuma asked confused. genma sighed and told them the truth.  
"they gave him the wrong medicine-what he took isn’t gonna do shit for whats in his system right now"  
the anbu froze, they knew better to question genma's results, after all they had watched him test again just to be sure. kakashi’s whole body was tense. his hands curled in fury. it was only the fast action of asuma and raidou that stopped kakashi from revealing himself to the chunin.  
"don’t, if you go down there he'll fail"  
"if we don’t he could die"  
kakashi grit out, he didn’t want to think about losing another precious person. asuma and raidou glanced to genma silently asking how long they had. genma nodded his head before thinking out loud.  
"alright its been three hours since he was poisoned. if its truly in the family of yil he's got another five hours before there's nothing we can do. we should at least let him try to finish the exam, if he starts showing the worse symptoms i'll intervene myself kakashi."  
the copy nin relaxed in his teammates hold. they had time, not a lot but some. he nodded reluctantly and felt asuma and raidou let him go. they all looked down and watched as iruka sat there panting.  
"fever?"  
"yeah, he needs to get moving before it gets worse though"  
the others nodded, there was no way they could tell iruka what they knew without disqualifying him. they also couldn’t do anything to tell the chunin to get a move on. they had to wait for iruka to start moving on his own. it was twenty minutes later that iruka pried open his eyes. wiping his forehead he grimaced.  
"well this is turning out well. i don’t think that medicines doing anything. i may not know poisons like you wolverine does, but i know its only going to get worse. time to get moving before i run out of time"  
they watched as the chunin climbed to his feet and shook his head like a dog would before hanging onto the tree with a vice like grip.  
"ok note to self don’t do that again"  
pushing off from the tree, iruka finally began to move albeit slowly off into the distance. looking to one another the anbu sighed. at least he hadn’t given up. they followed him through out his journey, two hours passed in silence, no examiners came near him, no traps, nothing but the effects of the poison. iruka would stumble here and there before righting himself. unbeknownst to the anbu following him iruka was using what chakra he could to try and slow the progression of the poison in his body, just like his sensei had taught him. it seemed to help some, but slowly the effects of the poison overruled the benefits of the chakra absorption and iruka was forced to press on despite the poison ravaging his body. either the technique would hold of the poison and give him more time or the poison would win. moving under his own delayed body, it was slow going, his vision blurring as he took each step. leaning against a tree iruka pulled free his canteen and poured some water over his head. sighing as the cold water hit his heated skin. god that felt good. recapping the water he continued on. the chunin knew he only had another two or three hours left of daylight and then his traveling would become that much harder for him and that was if he managed to keep going that long. he was beginning to doubt if he would last that long under the effects of his wounds and the poison running through him. pushing off of the tree he forced himself to continue. he refused to give in just yet, especially after all the work he'd done to get this far. he had only made it another 100 yards when iruka felt a chakra signature coming towards him. frowning it took his mind way to long to associate that with danger. ducking under some large rocks to hide he leveled out his breathing and waited. he could hear twigs snapping in the distance and it wasn’t long before he could feel the person just over the ridge.  
"iruka"  
iruka froze, he knew that voice. it was kakashi.


	37. the jounin exam pt 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the conclusion of the jounin exam. iruka faces against his opponents one on one in his last ditch effort to pass his exam all while fighting the effects of his wounds and the poison running through his bloodstream. kakashi and his team watch and wait to see if the chunin has any more tricks up his sleeve or if he's going to call it quits when faced with the reality of his situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day! so here it is folks, the final chapter of the jounin exam. will iruka come out on top or will he fail? more importantly will he live? i know im evil taunting you all, but trust me...its worth it. i think your all going to love this chapter just as much as i did writing it. fair warning though, once the action fades away were going to be dealing with some heavy angst. keep some tissues handy. lol. 
> 
> thanks for all the comments and kudos. look forward to it everyday and im not sure what im going to do when this story is finished. none of my other wip's are anywhere near ready to post so it might be a while before you see anything in this fandom or another for that matter. im writing as fast as i can though...might try my hand at some one-shots, though i tend to fail at those once the plot bunny takes hold. oh well, still got a few more days left of posting the last chapters of this story. hang tight guys, things are going to get dark before they get better.

the anbu watched as iruka hid himself, albeit a little clumsily but considering he had to be running a high fever by then, they were content with his hiding spot. they all froze when they saw the figure walk around a tree smiling. kakashi tensed, asuma grabbed his vest just to be cautious. they heard the impostor call out to iruka. they had no choice, but to wait and see what would happen next.  
hiding behind his rocks, iruka fought within himself. he was still in the exam, it was an impostor it had to be. kakashi wouldn’t make him fail the test.  
"iruka you need to come out now, the medicine they gave you wont work on your wound"  
kakashi grit his teeth, they were playing iruka, using him against the chunin and letting the chunin know just how much danger he was actually in.  
iruka froze. the medicine. keeping perfectly pressed against the rock, he fished out another vial of the medicine. he could still remember the scent of the poison coming off of the senbon. unsealing the medicine iruka sniffed it. closing his eyes and sighing he set the vial down and watched its contents spill into the earth. he should have realized as soon as he had tasted it that the scents didn’t match, poison and antidotes always smelled similar on purpose for people without poison training. these were two very different toxins.  
"iruka, your going to get sick if we don’t get you to the hospital soon"  
'too late'  
the chunin smirked. he wasn’t about to take a chance on this not being kakashi no matter what the man said.  
"iruka i can prove its me, just come out so i can talk to you"  
the anbu hated watching this, seeing iruka being played with by some sick fuck who imitated their friend. as it was asuma and raidou were having to keep the real kakashi in check.  
"iruka let me prove it, you've been training with me and my team, you work for ibiki in the interrogations office, i gave you one of my ninken and you named her mayonaka"  
kakashi was having a hell of a time holding back his tongue, he wanted to shout to iruka to not believe anything he heard. he knew the imitator was just confusing the feverish man, he could tell by the emotions going over iruka’s face. they watched as iruka slid along the side of the rock. he was going to reveal himself. the anbu were helpless to watch as iruka gave away his hiding spot and came out from behind the rock to face the impostor. he was shaky on his feet, but he stayed upright.  
"kakashi?"  
the man smiled back at the chunin and nodded.  
"yeah, come on we need to get you to the hospital"  
iruka approached the impostor, coming to stand just inches in front of him, reaching out to touch kakashi's shoulder.  
"what did the card say"  
and just like that the real kakashi relaxed. his team members looked at him confused but when kakashi refused to look anywhere but iruka they returned their focus to the events unfolding below them.  
"the card"  
iruka nodded his head.  
"the card in the game we played together. what did it say"  
"iruka we don’t have time for games, we need to get you help"  
iruka felt the man start to turn away from him as if to start to leave the area, wanting him to follow him. he took the brief moment offered to him by the man’s carelessness. before the man could turn back around or realize what was happening. iruka used all his strength, and the use of a kunai handle to bash the man over the head. he slumped to the ground unconscious. iruka slid to the ground beside him panting. the chunin kicked away from the impostor he’d just downed, slightly jarring the immobile form. he was slow to get back to his feet, but once he had iruka looked to the man who was unconscious at least for the moment.  
"kakashi always has time for games"  
the chunin hastened his pace out of the area and continued towards his final goal. the finish line.  
the anbu couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed. iruka had caught the impostor in a question only the real kakashi would know and when he avoided it, bam. smiling to each other, genma asked.  
"what did the card say?"  
"do fifty jumping jacks"  
the group snorted, something totally out of the blue, there was no way someone could guess that unless they had been there. following after iruka they silently urged the man on with every step.  
the sun was just beginning to fall through the clouds towards the hills when iruka made it to the final stretch of the course. leaning against a tree the chunin panted. his fever was ravaging what little strength he had and it was getting harder and harder to breath normal. iruka didn’t want them to worry, but he knew they probably knew what had been going on with him since he first started showing symptoms.  
"damn this stuff is nasty. i can barely see, everything’s a blur. worse than snake venom."  
the anbu frowned when iruka revealed he was having trouble seeing. it wouldn’t do him any good if he encountered another examiner on his final stretch of the course. still iruka pressed on, trying to ignore the fever, the sweat pouring off of him in waves or the fact that he could no longer breath slowly or stably, he was effectively panting for each breath he took. nearing a clearing, the chunin hunkered down to peak through the brush. he could see the finish line. the gate lay sealed just beyond it. the only problem, the two jounin standing in front of it. sighing iruka sat back against a tree and tried to come up with a strategy. his mind wouldn’t focus though, it throbbed with each beat of his heart, his concussion just being amplified by the effects of the poison in his bloodstream. pulling out his canteen iruka took a drink before he poured the rest over his head. it helped to clear his thoughts some.   
looking through the bushes again he watched the jounin as they stood completely still, not moving an inch. they looked like statues, heavily armed statues. smiling to himself the chunin leaned back against the tree and waited. he had no plan, limited chakra, couldn’t really see and could barely walk. yeah this was a great time for a sparring match. letting his head fall back, he spoke to the anbu he knew were there. using a bare whisper so as to not give away his position.  
"i have a feeling this is going to suck"  
they listened as iruka spoke to them from his hiding spot. they knew he was not only outnumbered, but he was at a severe disadvantage with the wounds he had sustained.  
"i can honestly say i have no friggin clue on what to do here, im losing daylight, i can tell that much. but i don’t know if it would be better to wait for nightfall or just chance it now while i can still see somethings."  
the anbu waited to see what their friend would do. they watched as iruka checked his weapons pouches before wiping his fevered forehead again, the chunin climbed to his knees and peered through the brush again. pulling back once he had verified that the guards hadn’t moved an inch iruka nodded. this was going to be his one and only shot at this. his body was too damn tired to have another go in him after this. taking a panting breath iruka lunged forward.

***************************

iruka burst through the foliage, instantly being seen by the jounin who ran to intercept him. the chunin skidded to a stop as they continued to race towards him. smiling he made the hand signs for what was bound to be his only jutsu in this fight. it only took a second for the ground itself to contort and twist, tendrils reaching from the ground trying to entangle and ensnare their targets. the jounin tried two tactics, one of them tried to run right through it. big mistake and the other jumped over the effected area. iruka drew his kunai ready to take the smarter one head on, the mans partner wasn’t going to be a problem until the jutsu wore off in a couple minutes. if he was lucky he could disable this man and run to the gate before the partner ever got free of his jutsu. their kunai clashed as they pushed at each other, trying to gain ground against one another, leveraging their kunai’s towards one another’s throats.  
"just give up, your not going to beat us"  
iruka gritted his teeth, he could feel his strength waning as the man began to overpower him. using the only other thing he could think of, iruka kicked out with a leg to catch the man in the side, the man grunted but didn’t move back any. iruka gritted his teeth as the kunai was steadily pushed towards his own throat. kicking again got him another grunt, but nothing more. looking down, he could see the edge of the kunai and tell where it would land on his throat if the man succeeded in overpowering him. looking up to the smiling man, iruka did the only thing he could think to do, he took the hit. releasing all the strength in his arm, he dropped it down as he felt the blade slice his neck, at the same time he managed to catch the man in front of him off guard by his stunt and stab him with his own kunai in his side. the man in shock looked down to see the kunai in his side, it wasn’t a lethal blow by any means, but it hurt none the less. looking up he was surprised to see the bleeding chunin smiling at him, kicking out iruka put the last of his strength into his kick and threw the man to the ground, just like raidou had taught him. grabbing his throat iruka ran for the finish line. he had only a couple more seconds left of the entanglement jutsu before the other man would be free.  
they watched the jutsu capture one of iruka’s opponents who had underestimated his abilities, the other man began a tug of war with kunai, not something they liked to see. they saw iruka kick out at the man twice, but with no effect. then to their horror iruka began to lose the deadly game of tug of war, the enemies kunai coming closer and closer to his throat. they saw iruka glance down at the impeding checkmate move and then he just let go. they gasped as the enemies kunai tore into iruka's throat just as iruka stabbed the man in the side before landing a very solid kick sending the man to the ground. the chunin grasped his throat and ran for it. they didn’t know what iruka was thinking, he could bleed to death before they got him to the hospital. chasing after the chunin they darted around the jounin still struggling from the chunin’s entanglement jutsu and the already downed man as they sought to catch up to the chunin. they saw iruka pull out the flag and slam it against the gate, the barrier fell and the gate swung open. iruka made it three steps passed the finish line before collapsing to the ground.  
they ran for all they were worth, but still had to watch as iruka fell to the ground ahead of them. knowing that he had now passed they called out to the chunin. they slid to a stop beside him and rolled him over. his hand fell away from his neck revealing a deep gash that was bleeding heavily, but had apparently missed the jugular. asuma ripped open his med kit and they started applying pressure to the wound even as the man who had been waiting at the gate approached.  
"i see he made it"  
kakashi looked up enough to glare at the man before going back to tending to iruka. genma was ripping open his black case again and pulling out a vial, they quickly uncapped the thing and forced iruka’s mouth open, making him drink the liquid.  
"is that the right one?"  
kakashi asked as he massaged the mans throat to make him swallow.  
"its a start. i don’t know the exact dosage they used or classification im just guessing, but it cant hurt him any"  
kakashi nodded and was about to gather the man up into his arms to head to the hospital when the man behind them spoke again.  
"if you are referring to the poison used in his test i believe they used something like vari or some nonsense"  
genma froze as he was helping kakashi gather up the chunin, he turned and even through his mask the man could feel the nin's rage. the man took as step back from the anbu warily.  
"veris? "  
the man nodded his head.  
"ah yes that’s the one"  
"are you nuts, that’s so against the rules its not funny. that stuff wouldn’t have been allowed even in the anbu exam. its too risky."  
his teammates joined the killer glares at hearing this. the man waved genma off as if he wasn’t concerned with what the anbu had just told him.  
"the council knew of his ability to endure toxins they took that into account"  
"veris isn’t like normal toxins or poisons. it comes from a plant, its man made...you cant be immune to it because of that."  
the man seemed to pale a little more as the anbu came closer to him.  
"later guys, lets get iruka to the hospital, we can round up the councils helpers later"  
"we did as we were told-"  
the man didn’t get to finish his statement because genma reeled around and socked him in the face, dropping the man like a stone.   
"yeah and im only doing that cause your an asshole who deserves it."  
raidou grabbed his arm and the group disappeared in identical puffs of smoke.

**************

five anbu appearing in the hospital lobby with an injured chunin in tow had to be the weirdest thing for the nurses on staff that night. they screamed when the anbu appeared and had to be yelled at by the anbu twice before they called an emergency. a gurney was brought out in no time, orderlies ready to whisk iruka away, kakashi reluctantly set the man down and watched as he was wheeled where he couldn’t follow. sighing the team turned to the nearest nurse and told her they were waiting. she nodded and said they could wait over in the emergency waiting room. nodding their heads, they followed the woman’s instructions and soon found themselves in very uncomfortable chairs waiting to hear about iruka.  
hours passed and no word was given, the anbu moved around the room like caged animals taking turns pacing before leaning against walls or harassing med nin's for details that never came.  
dawn had arrived and still no information had come, kakashi had his face in his hands was trying not to think about how he should have interfered and gotten iruka to the hospital sooner. kurenai put a hand on his shoulder pulling him out of his thoughts.  
"its not your fault, he wanted to continue"  
shaking his head he was about to retort when a doctor came out and called 'umino iruka'  
they approached swiftly unnerving the man, who wasn’t expecting anbu to be the ones waiting for a lowly chunin.  
"ah yes, we've treated his wounds, ran tests and made him comfortable. really the only concern is the poison. we've administered the proper antidote, but so far he doesn’t seem to be responding...the poison he was submitted too is rather tricky to treat. it could just be that it needs more time to circulate in his body, but there is also the chance that his body is just too weak to process it"  
"what does that mean"  
kakashi gritted out, he didn’t want to take his frustration out on the doctor, but he wanted answers. the man took a step back before saying.  
"we'll be running blood tests on him hourly to check the toxicity levels in his bloodstream, if the level of poison in his blood stream doesn’t start to go down by tonight there might not be anything we can do for him. right now its up to him to fight, we've given him the tools to do so. it all depends on how exhausted he really is."  
the anbu didn’t like what they were hearing. it might be too late for iruka, that couldn’t be. they had just seen him make his way through a gauntlet of challenges and come out on top. he couldn’t be taken away from them because the council had cheated.  
"can we see him"  
kurenai asked hopefully. the medical nin frowned at first before shrugging.  
"it will be a waste of your time anbu-san, he's not conscious"  
"we'd like to see him all the same"  
raidou spoke out. the med nin nodded before telling them to follow him. they were silent as they came down the hallway in the icu wing of the hospital. the sounds of heart monitors and heels clacking as nurses ran from one room to another being the only soundtrack to their ears. finally coming to a room with the door closed, the med nin opened it and motioned them in.  
"you can touch him, just don’t interfere with any of the lines"  
they nodded as they entered, they weren’t about to do anything that would limit iruka’s chances. the med nin excused himself and shut the door behind him as he left. entering the dimly lit room they took in the form of their friend. iruka looked so small and fragile. he was pale, sweat covering his face as he steamed up the oxygen mask with his brisk pants. an iv ran in his arm, delivering a couple different medicines, saline, pain medicine and the antidote for the poison in his blood. genma was the only one who leaned over to read the label before snorting. kakashi glanced up from iruka to ask what was wrong.  
" its veris alright, damn bastards cheated his test"  
the group nodded, it was something they would take up with the hokage for sure, regardless of whether iruka made it or not. kurenai reached out and took the chunin’s hand gently, rubbing her thumb over his pale skin.  
"you did so well iruka"  
the others smiled, they were proud of him, they just wished he would wake up and start joking with them again. kakashi didn’t say a word as he sat next to the mans bed, just watching iruka as he breathed. they all found spots in the room where they felt the most comfortable. they collectively jumped when the door came open to reveal a young woman, they hid the fact that hey had drawn weapons when she had abruptly entered. she froze when she saw them. glancing to the bed she glanced back to the anbu staring at her.  
"ano, are you in the right room anbu-san"  
genma snorted behind his mask, catching her attention.  
"yeah we know where we are"  
she blushed before apologizing and approaching iruka’s bedside. pulling out a syringe they watched as she inserted the need into the the man's iv catheter and drew some blood. taking out a small plastic device from her pocket she decompressed the plunger to allow some drops of blood to flow onto the testing strip. getting the results she threw the items in the bio-hazard bin before turning to leave.  
"any change?"  
she jumped before turning to face them, smiling she tried to reassure them.  
"its a little early to see any so don’t be discouraged."  
they nodded and allowed the woman to leave. the silence took over the room again as soon as the woman was gone. this continued for hours, every hour a nurse would come in check iruka’s toxicity levels and leave. after the fourth time of the same negative results the anbu stopped asking.  
they were jarred out of their thoughts when the door opened just five minutes after the nurse had left. they relaxed when they saw it was ibiki.  
"i figured i would find you all here."  
the scarred man glanced to iruka and frowned. shaking his head he went on to tell them.  
"the hokage is furious, your little care package you sent over to her office with the scroll and senbon with your test kit will be enough for her to remove someone from the council when she finds out who did it."  
that made them feel a little bit better about their present situation.  
"how is he?"  
"no change"  
ibiki nodded, he had been informed of what had taken place, the entrance guard had been handed over to him earlier in the day and he was singing like a canary. turning to leave he stopped at the door before saying.  
"the hokage has a new mission for your team"  
he could feel the killing intent radiating towards him, smiling since he knew they couldn’t see his face ibiki continued.  
"she wants you to guard iruka from whoever was trying to put a hit on him. just until he's back on his feet of course, but until then you are to make sure nothing happens to him"  
the killing intent disappeared instantly. ibiki left before anything else was said. once ibiki had gone the team relaxed some knowing that they were going to be allowed to stay with the chunin indefinitely, not even the doctors could order them to leave. not that they knew of any doctors brave enough to order anbu around.  
"do you think they'll give us a couple minutes with whoever orchestrated this whole fiasco?"  
the others smiled to genma before shaking their head.  
"don’t think so, something tells me you bashing the examiners brains in will make them think we might be hostile"  
genma shrugged before muttering that he had deserved it. his team smiled. they agreed with him of course, but it didn’t change what was happening to iruka. at the next hour the nurse came in like always and was in the midst of her test, when she glanced up to all of them.  
"you realize that visiting hours are almost over"  
"he's our mission"  
it was the first time kakashi had spoken since they had gotten iruka at the gate. the woman frowned at him before looking at iruka and asking.  
"he a chunin, how-"  
"jounin, he passed the test"  
the woman paused a second before nodding.  
"alright jounin, he's in the best place he can be right now, i don’t see why he needs anbu guard"  
"that’s why your not the hokage"  
raidou commented snidely. the woman frowned at him before recording her findings and leaving in a huff. once she was gone they snickered.  
"you should all go take showers and grab some food"  
they glanced to their captain as if he had grown another head.  
"and what about you?"  
asuma asked skeptically.  
"once your back i'll do the same, but only because i know you'd bitch at me if i didn’t"  
they nodded and disappeared in flashes of smoke. leaving kakashi with iruka. with the room to himself he crept closer to iruka and pulled his mask to the side to be able to really look at him. reaching out he stroked the mans cheek.  
"im so sorry iruka"  
sighing he reached out and took the ninjas hand before sitting back down. putting his mask back in place he waited for his team to come back to relieve him. it was only a half an hour later that the first of them arrived. raidou appeared and nodded to him, getting up kakashi said he'd be back soon and disappeared. once kakashi was gone raidou looked to iruka and said.  
"you better come back to us kid, kakashi needs you"  
it wasn’t long before his lover joined him and soon after asuma and kurenai. kakashi finally returned as well, bringing the team back together in their mission to watch the man lying in the bed. with the sun setting they began to have doubts on whether they were going to get any good news about the chunin. the nurse came in on the hour mark like always and ran her tests, as she was leaving genma couldn’t help but ask if there had been any change. she smiled at him but shook her head. sighing the team fell once more into silence.

the night passed slowly, the nurses reported to them that there had been no change, each time it drove a stake a little deeper in their hearts. they were losing him. it was 3 in the morning when the nurse came in to test iruka again and replace some bags on his iv pole. she ignored the anbu standing guard having been warned when she came on shift. smiling to them she went about her work, making sure the chunin was as comfortable as he could be, administering pain medication just in case, more antidote for the poison ravaging his body and some more saline. taking a clean syringe she drew some blood and proceeded to test it. shaking the test about to hurry it, once it had beeped, she glanced down. frowning she was about to test again when the wolf anbu asked.  
"whats wrong?"  
jolting out of her thoughts she spoke as she went about her task.  
"its probably nothing, sometimes the tests fail. im just gonna recheck to make sure...damn alright i'll be right back"  
she left before they could question her anymore. dread spread throughout their bodies, it was only a couple minutes later when a doctor accompanied the nurse back into the room. he was holding the test and arguing with her. the anbu weren’t able to ask what was going on before the man drew some more blood and did his own test. the nurse was shifting from heel to heel nervously afraid that maybe she had screwed up and summoned her superior for nothing. the man was just about to glance back at the test when the alarms connected to iruka started blaring. the anbu jumped at the sudden noise and the doctor and nurse scrambled to turn the noise off not only for their benefit but for the twitchy nin's in the room.  
"whats going on!"  
kakashi cried out, asuma held him back, preventing him from getting in the doctors way. the man was scrambling around the chunin trying to find what had set off the alarms, while the nurse looked at the print outs the machine was spilling out rapidly about the chunin in question.   
"go get kento now!"  
the nurse ran out of the room and the doctor turned to the anbu.  
"i need you to leave, you can wait in the hall"  
"no"  
the doctor frowned at kakashi and was about to retort that he would call the hokage, when alarms sounded again and he had just enough time to turn around to see iruka start to convulse.  
"shit!"  
he tried to brace the man's body, but the doctor wasn’t strong enough. genma and raidou shot into action and pushed the chunin’s body down as they felt the tremors fight against their hold. the doctor nodded at them before slamming his hand down on a red button on the wall and slamming his other hand against the siren's going off in the room, making it eerily silent as iruka buckled in their hold.  
"do something dammit"  
kurenai shouted to the still doctor who seemed to be frozen standing to the side of iruka. the man shouted back.  
"there's nothing to do, we have to wait for the seizure to end"  
raidou and genma gritted their teeth, it felt like they would snap the chunin in half, they didn’t want to hurt him, but knew the best thing they could do was hold him down while he seized so he didn’t injure himself while flailing.  
the door bashed against the wall as the nurse and presumably the man named kento she was sent to retrieve. entered the girl gasped and was pushed out of the way by the man.  
"how long"  
"a minute"  
the time seemed to stretch on for eternity for the anbu as they watched their friends body buck uncontrollably. finally almost two minutes in the twitching reduced until it finally stopped. the med nins rushed forward pushing genma and raidou out of the way as they started to examine iruka. the man named kento drew out a syringe and quickly retrieved a vial from one of his pockets, drawing the correct amount he shoved the syringe into the man's catheter and administered the drug. the other doctor took his time to reset all of the equipment, leaving his colleague to attend to medicating the man. having done all they could for the man, they stood back to watch him a moment.  
"trigger?"  
"fever spike, his temperature skyrocketed too suddenly and his body couldn’t compensate. the tolphrinal should prevent it from happening again."  
the anbu listened intently as the two med nin's talked back and forth to each other. seeming to come to the same conclusion they turned to the anbu captain. kakashi waited his chest beginning to hurt from the lack of air as he refused to breath.  
"we gave him some medicine to reduce his fever, at least temporarily. he shouldn’t have another seizure, but i have to warn you we are running out of options. he doesn’t seem to be responding to the antidote and we cant just keep pumping him full of it, his kidneys will shut down if we do. he's on the last pack we can give him. after that its up to him to fight off the poison. i understand he's your friend, but you should be prepared-take the time you have with him to say goodbye if that’s what you need."  
the doctor bowed his head and gathered his assistant and kento before heading for the door. genma stepped forward gaining their attention.  
"what-what are his chances?"  
the doctor sighed before looking back at the man lying on the bed.  
"not good anbu-san. he most likely will never wake up even if he fights off the effects of the poison, which in itself is very unlikely now. like i said, you should be prepared to say goodbye."  
with that the med nin's left the room leaving the anbu squad to their own thoughts. asuma hadn’t let go of kakashi yet, instead he seemed to hold his captain all the tighter after hearing the news about the chunin. kakashi's hand reached up to asuma, the anbu was prepared for him to lash out in anger which made his actions all the more confusing when all he did was put his hand over asuma’s. his teammate didn’t react to the rather personal touch by the man, he just continued to hang onto kakashi. it took a couple minutes for the man to gather himself, once he had kakashi straightened himself out and shrugged out of asuma’s hold. he stepped forward and just watched the chunin as he panted into the oxygen mask. sweat was pouring from his brow, unable to stop himself kakashi reached out and wiped the man's forehead, clearing it at least for now of the sweat accumulating on his body. pulling his hand back he stepped away from the bed to look at his team.  
"genma inform the hokage of his condition, raidou find ibiki and let him know as well."  
the two nodded and were gone in the blink of an eye. leaving kakashi with asuma and kurenai as his only company. they were silent allowing their captain to think. they watched behind their porcelain masks as kakashi retook his seat next to the window. silently watching iruka. looking to one another they couldn’t help but draw closer to one another and reach for each others hands. they needed the reassurance that they were still together. still alive.  
it barely took genma and raidou ten minutes to return to the room, simply mentioning that the hokage and ibiki knew and that they were taking appropriate actions. kakashi dully nodded to them, never taking his eyes off of iruka. like an hourglass genma watched as the antidote bag slowly drained into his friends limp arm. it took hours, but he watched as the clear liquid drained, until the bag was empty. wordlessly he approached and massaged the empty bag, making sure it hadn’t clogged at all. his teammates looked at him in confusion.  
"its empty, its up to him now"  
they nodded, they didn’t like it, but there was nothing they could do about it. the hourly check ups had stopped after iruka's seizure so they had no way to know if he was reacting to the antidote at all.   
just passed dawn a nurse came in and took down the empty bags and replaced them, minus the antidote bag.  
"can you check"  
the nurse jumped a little at the sudden question and swiveled around to face the man addressing her.  
"check?"  
"his blood"  
realization dawned on her and she nodded before getting out the proper supplies. inserting the needle into the catheter she withdrew some blood and placed it on the testing strip. seconds passed before the test must have revealed the answers. she turned to face them with a bittersweet smile, the anbu looked away. she bowed to them before leaving quietly. the day passed slowly, they never asked for the nurses to test iruka again. they knew that iruka wasn’t winning the battle against the poison. having the constant reminder would do nothing to improve the situation they found themselves in.


	38. chakra knows best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kakashi and his team wait to see how iruka will fair against the poison's effects. bad news come quickly to the group and not even the hokage can prevent the chunin from succumbing to the poison. an investigation has already been started about the chunin's exam, leaving kakashi and his team to stand guard beside iruka until he either pulls through or dies from the underhanded tricks played against him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day and oh my god is this a big one. so much angst, but it gets better by the end of the chapter i promise. no cliffhangers this time either so lower your pitchforks. were going to have a lot of cuteness and fluff coming up soon as well.

it was after lunch time that the door opened again, this time revealing the hokage herself. they bowed to her and she waved them off, coming to stand over the chunin she smiled sadly before placing her hands over iruka’s chest and focusing her chakra on the man below her. she could feel a strange sensation throughout the man's body but didn’t pay any attention to it, iruka's body was using his chakra to try and fight off the poison, it wasn’t working as far as she could tell. the green glow of the hokage’s hands was the only thing they focused on as the hokage had her eyes closed, thinking hard as she sensed how sick the chunin was. pulling her hands back she sighed. without even looking at them she spoke, never letting her eyes trail off of the academy teacher.  
" i've spoken with his doctors and they agree with me about the prognosis"  
"which is?"  
kakashi asked, his tone blunt and cold. she tore her gaze away from iruka to look at kakashi.  
"he's not going to change kakashi, we have done all we could for him. not even my abilities can undo the damage that poison causes, simply put his body is giving out-we can of course hook him up to life support, but it will change nothing, it would only make him linger"  
kakashi let his head hang, he had failed.  
"there was nothing any of you could have done"  
she added seeing their crestfallen looks even through the anbu’s masks.  
"we could have ended the exam and gotten him here sooner"  
kakashi muttered sourly. tsunade smiled gently at the man who refused to look at her.  
"i can honestly say that in my medical opinion even if you had stopped the exam as soon as he started showing symptoms and gotten him here, he would have had a slim chance"  
"but a chance none the less"  
she frowned at the anbu captain. looking to his teammates she regarded the other silent people in the room. they refused to step forward and speak their minds, forcing her hand.  
"you are his friends, he has no family. what would you like to do"  
the anbu stilled instantly, the hokage was giving them the right to decide what happened to iruka? they looked to one another skeptically before kurenai stepped forward albeit reluctantly.  
"im sorry hokage-sama, but its not our place-"  
"its exactly your place, you know him best."  
kurenai lowered her head, nodding solemnly. there was a long pause before genma asked.  
"could we wait a little longer...to make our decision?"  
the hokage nodded to the anbu. heading to the door she paused only long enough to say.  
"make your decision by the end of the day, if you want life support we will need to move quickly so his body doesn’t start to waste away from the poisons effects. if you choose otherwise, we will let nature take its course"  
with that she left them to think about what they would choose for the once energetic chunin. sighing genma slumped his shoulders, he wasn’t surprised when he felt raidou pull him back against himself. he just relished in the contact between the two of them.  
"you should go home and get some rest"  
kakashi's voice was dull and lifeless as he instructed his teammates to leave.  
"were not leaving you here alone"  
"im not alone, iruka is here"  
"iruka is in a coma"  
kurenai winced at her own harshness, she hadn’t meant to state it like that, but she wanted kakashi to see reason. the anbu captain sighed.  
"just go get a few hours then you can come back if you want"  
"and you?"  
asuma asked.  
"im not leaving him"  
asuma frowned before stating.  
"he would want you to take care of yourself"  
"more than likely, but he doesn’t get much of a say in it with where he's laying"  
kurenai stopped her lover from arguing with kakashi any more. it was obvious that kakashi wasn’t about to leave the chunin. nodding to her teammates she spoke gently.  
"we'll give you some time alone with him, but we'll be back later alright"  
kakashi nodded. the anbu used the door this time instead of a jutsu and once the door was shut behind them, kurenai spoke.  
"he needs some time alone with him, whether to curse him or say goodbye who knows, but the least we can do is give him that."  
the others nodded before heading to their apartments for a couple hours rest. sleep wasn’t about to come easy to them, even with the sleep deprivation they were all experiencing. how could they sleep well knowing that iruka lay there dying.

*************

kakashi waited until the door shut behind his teammates to get up from his seat. approaching the bed he reached out to take the cool hand of the man laying comatose before him.  
"im so sorry iruka, i-i should have done something, anything. i shouldn’t have waited so long-i wanted more time with you. i wanted to get to know you better to-to be able to share ourselves with one another. you don’t deserve this and i promise you that whoever did this will pay. i wont rest until they do."  
moving his mask aside with his free hand, kakashi leaned over the chunin and kissed the hot forehead of the man, ignoring the sweat trailing down the mans head. pulling back he let go of iruka’s hand and retook his seat to wait, idly re-fixing his mask in place in case any medical nin came in to see to the chunin. he wouldn’t leave iruka, not until it was over.  
hours passed in silence, kakashi never speaking, never moving. he didn’t dare try and read, he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the struggling man on the bed. even after all this time it still surprised him when obito’s eye would start to cry.  
'i know obito, i know'  
moving his mask aside he wiped his eye to clear the fog of tears. placing his mask back on he waited.  
four hours went by before the door opened again, genma and raidou walked silently to their posts, not bothering to greet kakashi or ask if there was a change while they were gone. it would be cruel to do so. not long after kurenai and asuma returned as well, though they brought a care package for kakashi.  
"we brought food, we know you haven’t eaten so-"  
"thank you"  
she smiled as the silver haired nin moved his mask aside to eat the offered food. he could barely taste the amazing cooking that kurenai had made for him. everything was bland now. dull. once he was done he threw away the trash before reclaiming his seat, his mask once again in place. his teammates watched as the sun began to set, finally it was raidou who asked the touchy subject.  
"what are we going to do?"  
they all knew what he meant, they had a choice to make for iruka. genma spoke up first.  
"he wouldn’t want to linger like that, i know that much"  
kurenai nodded followed shortly by asuma. they waited for kakashi to put in his thoughts, but when he didn’t asuma stated.  
"we let nature take its course."  
they all nodded, prepared to answer the hokage when she came around again. they didn’t have to wait long, only an hour past sunset the busty blonde came walking into the room. she didn’t bother to smile at any of them, she knew it wouldn’t be well received, not that she could blame them.  
"have you made a decision?"  
"we decided to let nature take its course"  
the hokage nodded, approaching iruka she began to unhook some of the monitors. talking as she went.  
"these things make a lot of noise as im sure your aware. they wont do him any good anyways so im taking them off of him to let you all have some peace and quiet-when the time comes"  
the anbu nodded their thanks. they didn’t want to hear the blazing sirens again, they would know when iruka passed. his chakra signature would die with him. once she was done she took one last opportunity to check over the man before leaving him in the care of the anbu watching over him. laying her hands on his chest, she figured the least she could do is let them know an estimate on how long iruka was expected to hang on. her hands glowed green again as she pushed her chakra into the small form to feel around his ravaged body.  
the anbu watched as the machines were disconnected from iruka, making him look like he was sleeping. granted he still had the iv and the oxygen mask, but all the other monitors were gone. the hokage began her final assessment and they watched patiently waiting for her to tell them how long he had left.  
pulling her chakra back, she blinked confused. that was rather unusual. forcing her chakra back into iruka she let herself feel around to see if she had missed something. just like before she felt his chakra cocooning itself around his organs. she had felt it before when she first examined him, but thought nothing of it, it wasn’t too far fetched to believe the man's chakra system was trying to defend itself from falling prey to the effects of the poison. but with iruka not getting better she had expected his chakra to let go of its struggle and give into the effects of the poison. his chakra however remained untainted, surrounding his vital organs protectively. letting her own chakra penetrate deeper her eye's widened when she realized what she was feeling.  
the anbu watched as the hokage continued her exam for what seemed like an extended amount of time for a dying man. but when her eyes widened they had to ask what was wrong.  
"he-his organs are intact"  
puzzled the anbu looked to one another before returning their gaze to their hokage.  
"they should be degrading under the poisons effects, but their not. his chakra system has cocooned all his vital organs protecting them from harm."  
"that’s a good thing right?"  
genma asked, hope in his voice. the hokage nodded before retracting her own chakra.  
"i'll be right back"  
she stormed out of the room leaving the anbu more confused as to what she was up too. a moment later she returned with a cart and shooed genma and raidou over to the other side of the room. plugging the cart in she prepared the ultra sound device before moving the blankets out of the way to bear his chest to her, the bandages were cut away exposing horribly bruised flesh. ignoring it, she pressed the sonar device against his chest and watched as his heart continued to beat surrounded by a thin membrane of chakra. pointing it out on the screen to the anbu she explained.  
"that little barrier is all that’s keeping his organs from dying. for some reason iruka's chakra system is protecting his body from further harm."  
"whats that mean?"  
raidou asked, holding tightly onto genma’s gloved hand.  
"it means, that as long as he has chakra, his body is going to continue to fight the poison. its going to come down to which lasts longer, the poison or his chakra. one will burn out."  
"and if the poison burns out first"  
kakashi asked, daring to hope.  
"if he can hold out a little longer he might just be able to beat this"  
the anbu couldn’t contain their excitement much to the amusement of their hokage. she put away the ultra sound machine and wiped iruka’s chest clean before tucking the blankets around him, there was no reason to rebind his chest if he ended up falling prey to the poison. if he beat it, they could always bind his ribs again.  
"alright, there's really no point to hook him back up to the monitors since we can sense chakra signatures. just monitor his levels and that will tell you how he's doing. i don’t need to tell you what will happen if his chakra drops too low."  
they nodded fully understanding that iruka still had the odds stacked against him, but that at least he now had a chance.  
"if anything changes, call someone, i don’t care if he starts snoring while he's like this, if anything changes get someone in here asap"  
they nodded their heads, they weren’t about to let this chance slip them by. nodding her head she told them she would return in the morning on her way out she gave them a little advice.  
"talk to him-many people have claimed to be able to hear those around them when in a comatose like state. it might just be the thing to pull him out of this"  
the anbu fidgeted a little which made her smile. turning she left them to it. once the hokage was gone there was utter silence. none of them moving to actually talk to the chunin. sighing genma approached the bed and after fiddling with the straps of his armor for a minute started talking.  
"you officially made the rank of jounin just so you know. i managed to break that proctors nose for being an asshat after you passed out. the council is in an uproar because the hokage is about to rip them a new one and ibiki is doing what ibiki does best. he's making the people who helped with your exam squeal like pigs."  
his teammates took the time to chuckle here and there at their teammates monologue. genma ignored them as he continued.  
"we managed to get kakashi to eat but if you really want to make sure he doesn’t fuck himself up too badly your going to need to wake up to glare at him. kurenai brought him the food so we know it was at least healthy, he hasn’t slept though. hell most of us haven’t actually, don’t know about asuma and kurenai but me and raidou just paced the house until we could come back"  
asuma stepped forward to interject.  
"we didn’t sleep a wink either, i helped kurenai prepare the food for kakashi and then we just stared at the walls of the apartment. we didn’t know what else to do"  
"see your making everyone go ape shit, so you need to keep doing whatever your doing until that poison burns up."  
it was odd talking to themselves, but if the hokage thought it would help iruka, they would keep it up 24/7 until he woke up. they took turns talking about random shit from what they had watched during his exam to how they were sure this all counted as sick leave and iruka should get paid for it. the only one not to speak was kakashi, he listened intently to everything his teammates said, but he couldn’t bring himself to actually talk, he knew that if he tried all he would end up doing is beg the chunin to wake up.

night turned into day and they followed a pattern of each of them taking some time to direct the conversation they had been passing around all night. they only paused when someone came in to check iruka or when one of them had to leave for the bathroom. it was around four in the afternoon when the hokage finally paid a visit, genma was the only one ballsy enough to ask what happened to her coming in the morning. she glared at him before retorting.  
"i do have a village to run and i was busy trying to clean up this whole mess. ibiki is all for torturing everyone who had anything to do with the exam, im sure you would all jump at the chance to help, but so far it seems that two of the examiners had nothing to do with any of this. they thought it was just a typical exam and the woman using the poison is claiming that it had been given to her by the head examiner like always. their both in custody of course, but they are still being a little shits right now. i don’t expect them to last long against ibiki through. so lets see how sleeping beauty is doing"  
walking up to the chunin, she pulled the ultra sound machine over to get a good look at the chakra barrier surrounding his organs. nothing had changed that she could see, the barriers still held at all the vital spots in his body. putting the machine aside she took out a forehead scanner for checking his temperature and slid it across the chunin's brow. reading the result she nodded before double checking his iv fluids. turning to the anbu she let them know.  
"well everything’s still in place, holding steady. so its as good as we could expect right now. i have no idea how long it might take him to fight off the poison so don’t ask me kakashi. all i know is he's holding his own right now"  
the anbu captain tilted his head to her, smiling she told them to keep up the good work. once she was gone they started a new round of conversation to keep the comatose chunin entertained wherever he was. 

**************

three more days passed like that, the anbu constantly talking to iruka, the barrier holding strong. they took shifts to allow the others to sleep in the chairs provided, none of them willing to possibly miss the chunin waking. even kakashi was convinced into sleeping some by his teammates, which made them feel better, and as genma put it, he would get a better report card from them to iruka. he scowled at that, but tried to behave himself.   
it was on the forth day that during the hokage’s normal visit she frowned. the anbu tensed, they could sense iruka's chakra levels and although they were dwindling they weren’t too low yet as to still be useful.  
"hokage-sama?"  
"the barrier to his kidneys is gone, the one around his lungs is failing"  
the anbu just stared at her, they didn’t know how to react to that.  
"but his chakra-"  
"i know, he still has enough to use, i just cant figure out why he's not using it."  
sighing she put the ultra sound machine away for the day and told them to continue watching over the man and to keep talking to him regardless of how the ultra sound machines results looked. they nodded their heads and did as they were told. raidou was in the middle of the story on how he met genma, much to his teammates amusement, even kakashi was smiling. genma was mortified though, he refused to look up from the floor.  
"and then he just stood there, buck ass naked in front of a group of us, i don’t know if he just didn’t know what he should do or if he was enjoying the attention-"  
"attention"  
one word, crystal clear jolted them all, their eyes shot to the half mast eyes of iruka. they jumped up from their seats and rushed over to him.  
"IRUKA!"  
"hey"  
he coughed a little and winced as the movement caused his body to spasm. once he had relaxed again he smiled to them. the anbu had never been so happy in their lives.  
"kurenai go get a doctor"  
kakashi barked out the order before anyone else could speak, she ran as if she were guarding the hokage herself. iruka's eyes stayed only half open as they moved around the room falling on each of them. kakashi had a hold of iruka’s hand, squeezing gently but firmly. before he could say anything kurenai was back, dragging a doctor by his coat. upon seeing what had gotten him accosted by the anbu he straightened his coat and approached the chunin.  
"well how are we today, decided to wake up now huh"  
iruka watched him for a moment before saying.  
"i feel like someone used me as a punching bag"  
the doctor smiled before wheeling the ultra sound machine over, iruka regarded it curiously but didn’t ask what the man was doing until cold gel on his chest made him cringe.  
"whats that for?"  
"hmm, oh just checking your organs"  
iruka just stared at the doctor, he had no clue what was going on, but already he was too damn tired to care. all he wanted to do was sleep. his eyes slipped shut of their own accord and he felt kakashi's hand tighten against his own forcing him to open his eyes tiredly to look at the man in question. the tenseness in the mans hand relaxed when his eyes opened. the doctor finished what he was doing before moving the cart out of the way and asking.  
"iruka can you focus your chakra around your kidneys for me?"  
looking to the doctor he asked in a rough voice why. the doctor smiled before explaining.  
"your chakra has been protecting your organs from the poison, but yesterday we noticed that this protection began to wane, your kidneys, lungs, and spleen are unprotected right now and i wanted to see if you could actively re enforce that protection."  
iruka frowned for a minute, trying to comprehend what the doctor was saying.  
"please try iruka"  
kakashi asked, looking to the wolf mask iruka nodded his head and focused his chakra to where the doctor wanted it. the man smiled, his hands glowing green as he used a more personal method of examining the patient before him. letting his chakra intermingle with iruka’s the doctor frowned.  
"hmm, no that’s not the same. alright iruka you can stop now. it doesn’t seem to be working"  
iruka nodded, glad that he didn’t have to focus on anything anymore. he was exhausted, couldn’t the doctor see that, cause he was sure he looked ten times worse than he felt.   
"are his organs in danger"  
kakashi asked the doctor, a hint of worry lacing his voice. the doctor took a moment to reanalyze iruka before answering the anbu in front of him.  
"for one reason or another, it appears that the poison isn’t attacking those organs, even though they're unprotected. i have no explanation for it."  
"i do"  
iruka managed to speak out wearily. they all turned their attention to him.  
"you do?"  
the doctor asked surprised.  
"yeah, its a technique sensei taught me, i don’t even have to think about it to really to do it. it circulates your chakra around to protect your body from toxins and such. i started it when i first noticed the antidote wasn’t working. i didn’t think it was working though. it must have kept going even though i wasn’t thinking about it."  
"and the organs no longer being protected"  
the doctor asked with concern.  
"they're probably immune to the toxin now, that’s what the technique does. circulates the toxin around your body until your body adapts to it while protecting everything vital."  
the doctor smiled at iruka.  
"you are full of surprises young man. i want to draw some blood just to make sure your kidney function isn’t decreasing, but once that’s done you are to rest."  
iruka nodded his head as he watched the doctor stick a needle into the catheter in his arm. drawing out two tubes of blood before withdrawing the needle.  
"alright, time for you to rest. no talking anymore alright"  
iruka nodded, his eyes were already slipping closed. waiting a moment the doctor made sure his patient was actually asleep before turning to the anbu.  
"i'll go run these tests, but if they come back how i think they will. your friend is on the road to recovery."  
the anbu's smiles widened behind their masks, unbeknownst to the doctor who quickly excused himself. once they were alone in the room with iruka they removed their masks and grabbed each other, clinging to one another. iruka had made it, he had beaten the odds and although he still had a long way to go before he could even think of leaving the hospital, he had woken up. collecting themselves kurenai and asuma volunteered to inform the hokage and ibiki. kakashi smiled and thanked them. just like that they were gone, about to spread the word that the feisty school teacher hadn’t been beaten.  
"i cant believe it"  
genma smiled as he watched iruka sleep. raidou was shaking his head as well. they had gone from saying their goodbyes to listening to the chunin complain about how he felt. kakashi untangled his hand from iruka's letting the man get some much needed rest. smiling to his teammates he muttered.  
"now the fun part begins"  
they raised their brows at their captain.  
"keeping him in the hospital and hooked up to the iv"  
the anbu smiled before raidou commented.  
"he's been around you too long if he's going to try and escape the hospital before its time"  
"mah, he doesn’t like iv's nothing i can do about that, but i might be able to persuade him to keep it in. i have something he wants"  
the two anbu glanced to one another before asking what it was.  
"before the exam he asked to see my face once he was done with it. i think its fair for me to use it to my advantage right now."  
genma snorted, figures kakashi would use their deal with one another to keep the man compliant in bed. he knew how curious iruka was, the man would do anything to sate his curiosity.  
"you sir are an evil genius"  
kakashi nodded his head before saying thank you. asuma and kurenai returned a couple minutes apart from one another. smiles lighting their faces when they saw iruka sleeping.  
"well how'd it go"  
genma asked impatiently.  
"ibiki is thrilled, he said he cant wait to hold it over the jackass's heads that their little plan hadn’t worked."  
they smiled, figures that ibiki would find a silver lining in there somewhere to be able to inflict more pain on the bastards that had caused this mess.   
"the hokage is quite pleased, i told her what iruka had said and she just started laughing, apparently she had forgotten about orochimaru's technique for poisons and was rather impressed that iruka knew how to do it. she said she'll come by later to look him over"  
and just like that they fell back into a comfortable silence. watching iruka sleep, he was still running a high fever, but at least his breathing had calmed considerably. they turned as a solid force as the door came open, they relaxed when they saw the doctor who had treated iruka earlier coming in.  
"good news, kidneys checked out great. seems his little technique is working just fine. just wanted to let you all know that you could leave whenever you wanted, he's out of considerable danger now and is going to spend the majority of the next week or so asleep."  
"we stay"  
was all kakashi said, the doctor shrugged at him before commenting.  
"so long as you don’t aggravate my patient or disturb his rest, you can do the friggin can-can in here for all i care."  
genma snorted at that, the doctor smiled at him before continuing.  
"he's going to tire easy, just simple things like moving an arm or keeping his eyes open too long and he's going to crash. poison is a nasty thing that way. even with his technique he's looking at a substantial recovery time."  
the anbu nodded, completely understanding the position iruka was now in. however unlike the doctor they knew he had a place to return too when he was released from the hospital and a certain silver haired anbu to watch over him as he recovered. the doctor excused himself shortly after that. leaving the anbu to their own devices.

it was hours later when the hokage herself made an appearance, coming swiftly through the door like she owned the place. she paid them no mind and instead focused on iruka. her hands glowing green as she gently pressed against his chest to see the progress that had been made. she was almost done when a tired voice said.  
"that feels funny"  
she smiled at the half mast eyes of iruka but continued to do her job. once she was sure that all was well she pulled her own chakra back and stated.  
"you realize you just cheated death right"  
"doesn’t feel like it"  
she smiled before shaking her head, putting her hands on her hips like she was prone to do before continuing.  
"well whether it feels like it or not you have. the poison they used is normally used for assassinations, im sure you can guess why-"  
"not at the moment no"  
snorting at the chunin’s sarcasm she continued.  
"its hard to treat, namely you need to get the antidote within an hour to be able to fend it off and even then it has a high mortality rate. your little trick managed to keep all your vital organs from dying under the strain of the poison, without it we wouldn’t be having this little chat."  
iruka nodded his head though it seemed to be more effort for the chunin than was worth it because a moment later his eyes were slipping shut. turning to her anbu she moved the conversation to them.  
"ibiki got the proctor to fold like a house of cards, it shouldn’t be much longer before we get the name of who orchestrated this whole debacle"  
the anbu smiled behind their masks. they knew ibiki was good at what he did and for once they were glad that his powers of persuasion were being put to good use.  
"im not going to bother lying to you all, there could still be a threat to his life, whoever did this wanted iruka gone for one reason or another. however since he seems to be rather important to you all and i highly doubt any threat would make it five steps into this room. im leaving it up to your discretion to hash out who watches him when, but he's not to be left alone until this is all taken care of."  
turning back to the chunin she glanced to kakashi before stating.  
"you also might want to let him know when hes awake next that he's a jounin"  
kakashi nodded his head. just like that the hokage swept back out of the room as if she had never been there. sighing kurenai approached iruka's bed and much like any mother pulled his blankets higher around him.  
"how much do you know about that poison genma?"  
the man scratched at his hand plate before answering.  
"not much, no one's fought it this long and lived to tell you the truth. normally you either beat it early or you die. i cant say for certain what the long term effects will be though"  
she nodded before moving a strand of hair out of iruka's face. moving back to asuma's side, grasping his hand in her own.  
"somehow though i don’t think iruka's going to be bothered by the side effects, after all it keeps him away from ibiki for a little longer."  
her teammates snorted at that before kakashi spoke up.  
"i think he'd rather deal with ibiki than be like this"  
"mah he's sleeping, he doesn’t have a care in the world right now"  
genma pointed out to them. kakashi smirked, his teammate had a point about that. iruka was oblivious to everything around him right now. it was both a good thing and a bad thing. good because it got him the rest he needed and bad because it left him open to attack. not that his team was about to leave him for a second, but it still warranted some concern.


	39. drugs and promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> with iruka seemingly combating the poison that was meant to kill him, kakashi and his team stand by and watch over the chunin. wary of getting their hopes up too soon. iruka for his part feels like hell warmed over, lucky for him he's got such great friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day. some cute interactions between kakashi and his team are ahead in this chapter. i love writing their bantering.
> 
> thanks for the kudos and comments, it makes my day to see little notes from you guys and im sorry for putting you through hell the last two chapters, but it was totally worth it wasnt it? im going to say it was, cause its my story so nah. we've only got four chapters left after today's postings. two more days folks and this story will be complete. i cant believe that either, but hey its been a wonderful journey and we still have a couple days left, so buckle up folks. there's more to come.

day and night drifted together, the group taking turns to relieve themselves for showers and food, a little sleep here and there before returning to take over for their teammates. throughout it all though kakashi stayed. he trusted his teammates with his life, but he wasn’t going to leave iruka alone, not until they'd had a chance to talk.  
it was late in the afternoon when all of the anbu were eating some bento kurenai made for them, when iruka woke up again. he groaned which caught their attention immediately.  
"iruka you ok?"  
raidou asked as he approached the bed. the man scrunched his brow before opening his eyes to stare back at the larger man.  
"sorry"  
"don’t be sorry, i think you've earned cursing like a wave nin for a while"  
iruka smiled at that before muttering.  
"don’t know how to curse like that"  
the anbu laughed before asking again if he was ok.   
"im alive so i really cant complain, everything hurts though"  
kurenai frowned before speaking.  
"your on morphine iruka, you shouldn’t be feeling anything"  
the man's eyes were already beginning to droop again as he told them.  
"jutsu works on more than just poison. cant separate the two"  
iruka closed his eyes as he finished talking, the anbu sighed. it was a double edged sword then, it was saving him from the poison, but also getting rid of the pain medication meant to keep him comfortable.  
"how much longer do you think he needs to flush out the rest of the poison?"  
asuma asked, genma was about to retort that he had no friggin clue when a tired voice replied for him.  
"another day i think"  
iruka kept his eyes closed, but was apparently still with them. smiling asuma responded to the tired nin.  
"go back to sleep iruka"  
the ninja didn’t say anything and for a while they stayed quiet to hopefully help him fall back to sleep. it was genma who spoke up next.  
"makes you wonder what else he knows"  
his teammates nodded, iruka had a lot of knowledge because of his time with orochimaru and for once they were grateful for it. the snake sanin may have abused the man for years, but he'd also managed to train him enough to help iruka keep himself alive. it was raidou who asked kakashi.  
"so when are you going to show him your face?"  
kakashi shrugged his shoulders at first before replying stoically.  
"i'll probably wait until he can stay awake for more than five minutes at a time and has a better chance of remembering that i showed him"  
his teammates chuckled, they’d all seen his face one time or another, it came with the territory of saving each others asses all the time.  
"can we watch his reaction?"  
genma asked eagerly. kakashi snorted before replying.  
"no"  
the senbon sucking nin pouted against his lover much to raidou’s and the teams amusement. raidou rubbed genma’s shoulders in an attempt to make him feel better, it seemed to work because soon he was practically holding the other man up. kakashi noticed and suggested.  
"you should go home for a bit"  
raidou nodded and prodded the half asleep man into moving with him out of the room. once they were gone kurenai asked if kakashi would need anything that they could get for him.  
"no im fine."  
she nodded her head and replied that they would return in a couple hours themselves. kakashi waved them off and only halfheartedly watched them leave. finally kakashi was able to take a deeper breath and relax into his chair. iruka was alive. he spoke it like a mantra in his head. over and over again. he continued this until he was able to calm himself enough to go back to watching the sleeping figure on the bed.  
hours passed with nothing much happening, it was silent in the room and other than watching iruka and peering out the window to watch the progress of the village he had nothing exciting to do. sighing he turned back around to watch iruka a moment longer before finding a new way to entertain himself.  
genma and raidou bumped into kurenai and asuma on their way back to the room. having a chance to talk they were glad to have the opportunity.  
"that was too close"  
genma stated, the others nodded, they all knew about each others pasts, knowing about kakashi's fear of losing more people like he had his original team they couldn’t help but try to placate their fears of losing the chunin now that iruka was going to get better. maybe slowly, but he was getting better. it wasn’t until they entered the room that they realized the change in the atmosphere of the room. the tense atmosphere had reduced quite a bit and instead it was being replaced by calm. fully entering the room they smiled as they saw kakashi reading from his porn novel. things were getting back to normal it seemed.  
"ohayo"  
kurenai called, kakashi waved without tearing his eye off the page he was reading. his teammates smiled, things were really getting back to normal.   
"have a good rest?"  
he asked, finally putting his book down. they all nodded before asuma decided to try his luck.  
"you realize we can watch him while you go clean yourself up. im sure iruka would rather you not smell and have you actually get some sleep for yourself"  
kakashi frowned behind his mask, he knew it was only a matter of time before they ganged up on him again, he had just hoped it would be further down the road.  
"i am fully aware of your capabilities asuma"  
"then go rest"  
kurenai pleaded. sighing kakashi glanced to iruka, he didn’t want to leave him.  
"he's not going anywhere, hell he probably wont even wake up while your gone."  
nodding his head kakashi reluctantly stood up and let them know his plan.  
"alright i'll go grab a shower and try to rest, but if i cant im coming right back here"  
they nodded eagerly it was more than what they had hoped for. shaking his head and muttering under his breath about annoying teammates kakashi left them to care for iruka. once he was gone they had a mini celebration. they had been prepared to have to threaten to see the hokage on his behalf, but it hadn’t come to that.  
"ten dollars says he crashes like a rock"  
genma called out gleefully. raidou was shaking his head at his lover. kurenai elbowed asuma harshly when he called out.  
"your on, bet hes back within the hour"  
"honestly you two"  
kurenai pursed her lips in disapproval. they ignored her and began to watch the clock. four hours passed before kakashi came back. he had done as promised, he'd taken a shower and gotten some sleep. it was fitful, but sleep none the less. he was confused for a second when asuma cursed at him while handing some money over to genma. sighing he asked.  
"alright what was the bet"  
"that you'd crash like a rock"  
nodding his head he retook his seat before asking if iruka had woken while he was gone, raidou replied.  
"been sleeping like a baby, hasn’t moved an inch"  
smiling kakashi watched the sleeping figure for a while before pulling out his book to continue reading. it was early in the morning when iruka woke up again, groaning as before to signal he did not like what he was feeling. kurenai stepped forward and took his hand.  
"just relax iruka"  
the man opened his eyes and blinked a couple times before asking.  
"can you get a nurse?"  
the team was on high alert the second those words were uttered. kakashi stepping forward to ask.  
"why, whats wrong?"  
smiling at the suddenly tense anbu iruka replied softly.  
"i think the poison's gone, but i'd like them to check before i let my guard down"  
relaxing asuma nodded and went to find someone who could look over the man. he wasn’t gone more than five minutes before the doctor came in with asuma in tow.  
"i see were awake this morning, how do you feel"  
"hawk gave me permission to curse like a wave nin if that tells you anything"  
the doctor smiled before coming over to place his hands on the man's chest, glowing green the doctors hands moved over his body to check each of the organs still under guard by the jutsu. finding no barriers he nodded.  
"well you appear to be in order, the barriers are gone"  
reaching out to feel iruka’s forehead he nodded.  
"and your fevers gone down. i would say that your doing quite well all things considered"  
"so i can stop the jutsu"  
the doctor nodded, iruka sighed as he willed his chakra to stop trying to find more poison in his blood to attack. almost instantly he started to feel the effects of the morphine. sighing iruka let his eyes slip closed. turning from the ninja who was falling back to sleep the doctor let them know.  
"so long as his fever doesn’t come back up, there's nothing else to do but let him rest and recover"  
the anbu nodded and watched the doctor leave. once he was gone they started to converse with one another again.  
"well with the jutsu gone, he should start to feel the morphine"  
kurenai told them, her teammates were relieved to know that iruka wouldn’t be uncomfortable anymore. they were quite surprised when iruka's tired voice piped in.  
"thank god for morphine"  
the anbu laughed as iruka's eyes came open again, this time a little hazy from the effects of the powerful painkiller.  
"feels good huh?"  
raidou asked.   
"right now yes, yes it does"  
the anbu chuckled at the newly made jounin. it was genma who piped in.  
"so does this mean we can ask you embarrassing questions and you'll answer us?"  
the chunin frowned a minute like he was processing what genma had asked him, raidou was trying to wrangle his boyfriend in, but didn’t have to it seemed because iruka called out.  
"i think i remember someone saying you were buck ass naked"  
genma blushed behind his mask, the anbu roaring at their teammates expense. genma muttered.  
"go to sleep"  
iruka smiled faintly, his eyes drooping under the strain of staying awake. he didn’t want to sleep though, he didn’t even know what day it was or what had been going on. as if sensing his hesitation to give into the drugs, kakashi reached out to take his hand and said.  
"go back to sleep iruka"  
"don’t wanna"  
the anbu around him snorted at his childish reply. kakashi squeezed his hand, getting him to focus on only him.  
"you need to rest"  
iruka pouted a little before asking.  
"where's my sake"  
kakashi smiled as his teammates erupted behind him.  
"im pretty sure they'd kick me out for allowing a patient to drink while on painkillers. now go to sleep"  
iruka didn’t have the strength to fight anymore, he'd already been awake almost ten minutes and he could feel his body giving in to the call of the drugs. sighing into the oxygen mask he let his eyes slide shut and the darkness take him. once he was sure that iruka was indeed asleep kakashi released the man's hand and found his spot by the window.  
"he's just like you, refusing to do as told"  
asuma smiled, kakashi nodded his head before saying.  
"he's stubborn, probably what made him such a good teacher for those little hellions at the academy"  
his teammates smiled before kurenai replied.  
"don’t let him hear you call his students that, i've seen him go off on other chunin"  
kakashi shrugged before pointing at the sleeping man.  
"dead to the world right now"  
she smiled at her captain, he was known to be just as stubborn if not more so. she didn’t bother to say it though. the group continued to watch over the chunin laying on the bed. the steady rise and fall of his breathing making them relax. hours passed before the door opened again, this time a nurse came in followed closely by ibiki. he nodded to them but didn’t say anything as the nurse went about her duties. once she had changed the man's morphine drip she left quietly.  
"so whats up?"  
genma chirped. the interrogations officer smiled at him.  
"we got the name"  
the anbu waited for him to continue and continue he did.  
"the hokage is as we speak having him arrested with some of our colleagues. he doesn’t stand a chance to run and he's no match for the anbu we sent along with the hokage. hell she's probably liable to throw the man around a little while she's there. wouldn’t put it past her."  
"who was it?"  
kakashi asked, an edge to his tone. ibiki smiled before replying.  
"now if i go and tell you his name he's not going to suddenly disappear off the face of the earth only for recovery nin's to find his rotting and oddly destroyed corpse are they?"  
kakashi frowned at ibiki, the glare transferring through his mask. ibiki smiled before continuing.  
"its handled he wont be getting away with this."  
"i want to know"  
"im sure you do, but the fact remains that you cant. i cant have you interfering with an active investigation. so just sit tight and continue to watch over him."  
kakashi was about to step forward to threaten ibiki when raidou questioned.  
"and if he finds some way out of all of this? he has connections to the council if he was able to work things in his favor concerning iruka’s test."  
ibiki turned to face the man talking to him.  
"if he somehow weasels his way out of this, don’t be surprised if the hokage looks the other way while i drop him off to an unknown location that you just happen to have the maps for."  
raidou nodded, it was good enough for him. kakashi seemed to relax at that as well. ibiki changed the subject asking how the man was doing. it was kurenai who told him about everything that had been going on. once she was finished they waited to hear from the man. he just shook his head before turning to leave silently. they let him go without a word. the time progressed like many days before it, dragging on as they had nothing to do but watch over the sleeping man. eventually they resorted to extreme measures.  
"alright last place you did it"  
they groaned, genma always asked the sex questions. finally asuma spoke up.  
" training ground 8"  
genma tilted his head to the side before saying kinky. you got extra points if your answer was creative and unexpected. having sex where someone could find you got you a bonus point as far as genma was concerned. moving onto kakashi the man shrugged before saying.  
"my apartment"  
he wasn’t sure if his team would classify what he and iruka had done as sex, but he was counting it. genma seemed disappointed in the answer but let the next person take a turn asking a question. kurenai jumped at the chance and asked.  
" most embarrassing injury"  
her teammates just shook their heads, she was creative they would give her that. asuma went first.  
"broke my foot trying to climb down from a girlfriends window to escape her shinobi father. needless to say he caught me and left me to hang by my broken foot which had gotten tangled in the lattice going down the wall."  
kurenai leaned back against him and smiled. it hadn’t been her father to do that to him, but she could imagine asuma going to great lengths to escape a previous girlfriends angry shinobi father. raidou spoke up next.  
" lets see, oh i know, i dislocated my shoulder while trying to prove to my sensei that i could totally handle a stealth mission on my own. trying to not scream when the socket dislocated at the odd angle and then having him knowingly push down on my shoulder made me scream, never been more embarrassed in front of my sensei"  
genma just snorted at him before saying.  
"managed to slip on some mossy rocks, crack my skull open and need rescuing by another shinobi while buck ass naked"  
they laughed before raidou commented.  
"how do you always end up naked in your stories?"  
the senbon user shrugged before pointing to kakashi to continue.  
"hmm ah, it was just before naruto was born and the nine tails attack. sensei was making me help with the nursery and came back to find me hanging sharp implements from the ceiling as a mobile. took forever for him to stop laughing at me and explain that it wasn’t a good idea to leave a baby alone with kunai"  
"that wasn’t a wound"  
genma pointed out.  
"trust me, my pride was quite hurt"  
kurenai chuckled and let it pass. next it was asuma's turn to ask the question.  
"fondest memory"  
they all paused for a moment, good memories were hard to come by in the shinobi world. they were precious and heavily guarded. raidou spoke up.  
"getting to see genma beat the shit out of that asshat of a proctor"  
they laughed knowing it wasn’t raidou's true precious memory, but it was a good choice all the same. genma piped up shortly after.  
"i pick that one as well."  
asuma frowned at them before telling genma he had to pick something else. the man complained before finally speaking.  
"alright how about the day i finally convinced raidou here to go out on a date with me"  
they all snorted at that, they knew raidou had been the one to ask him not the other way around. asuma shook his head but let it pass. kurenai was up next.  
"getting to see my kids work together for the first time as a real team"  
that was a good one and they handed it to her for giving it up. kakashi had been thinking long and hard about it, he had a lot of dark memories, but good ones were rare. finally deciding on one he spoke.  
"watching iruka bash that examiners brain in when he impersonated me."  
they nodded, they had all feared in that instant that the confused man would fall for the trap. seeing him swiftly retaliate had nearly made them cry out in joy. kakashi got to choose the next question.  
"name one thing you wish you could change"  
"it could be anything?"  
kakashi nodded, he wasn’t going to give them parameters, he wanted to see what they came up with.  
"my skills assessment in the anbu exam"  
they all knew that kurenai wished she hadn’t been selected just for her ability to control genjitsu the way she did. she hated having to see what others were feeling and to use it against them. but the fact remained that they all had a part to play on the team and hers happened to be genjitsu.  
"raidou's accident"  
they never spoke of how the man had gotten his scars, it was too painful for any of them to know how close they had been to losing him. raidou wrapped his arms around genma and pulled him back against his chest.  
"my score against shikamaru in go"  
they laughed, they knew how much asuma was practicing, trying desperately to outmaneuver his student in the game. raidou was about to give his answer when iruka's tired voice said.  
"what the hell are you guys doing?"  
they turned their attention to the groggy man and smiled at him.  
"were playing a game"  
genma chirped happily, watching as iruka had to blink several times to clear his vision.  
"a game?"  
"yeah, we pose different questions or scenario's to each other and find out how we would each answer. kakashi got to choose the last question he wanted to know what we would change if we could alter one thing."  
iruka paused for a minute before smiling a little beneath the oxygen mask.  
"i'd kick sensei in the balls when i had the chance too"  
the anbu laughed, before genma asked how he had managed to have the opportunity to almost do that.  
"we were training, caught him off guard and had the option of doing that or going for his chest. managed to break two ribs."  
they smiled as iruka had to stop talking, instead focusing on bringing more air into his tired body. once he had calmed raidou gave his answer.  
"mines not as good as that, i'd change when i first joined anbu"  
they all knew that of them all kakashi and raidou had the longest careers. raidou only wished to have started when genma did so that he could have met him sooner.  
"such a romantic"  
genma called before wrapping his arms around raidou’s that were around his waist. iruka smiled, he was only mildly aware of everything going on around him, it took way too much energy to focus on what they were saying, but he refused to go back to sleep just yet. so instead he lay quietly on the bed just watching them interact with one another. kakashi had been about to speak to iruka when the door opened revealing a nurse, she smiled at them all and greeted iruka when she saw he was awake. she was about to hang another packet of morphine when iruka protested.  
"i don’t need that"  
"ignore him"  
kakashi stated, the nurse just smiled before continuing what she was doing.  
"im serious, i don’t want to be drugged up anymore"  
the nurse turned to look at him, he was already losing the battle to stay conscious.  
"if you could tell me that while being fully aware i might grant your wish, but seeing as your about to go lights out, it stays. it will help you sleep and make sure you don’t feel any of the wounds you have"  
"but i don’t have any-"  
the nurse scowled at him before crossing her arms over her chest.   
"your whole body is going to be hurting for a while because of the poison and the antidote. trust me when i say your going to want this"  
iruka was once again about to argue, when kakashi thanked the nurse before he could get a word in edge wise. she nodded and took her leave. once she was gone iruka frowned at him.  
"i wasn’t done talking to her"  
"yes you were"  
iruka's frown deepened at the anbu. but before he could get into an argument with the man, kurenai stepped forward and asked how he was feeling. he knew what they were doing, trying to distract him from being irate at kakashi, but he answered her all the same.  
"like im on drugs, im tired, but i don’t want to sleep anymore"  
she smiled to him before responding.  
"if your tired its probably because your body needs the rest, its only been a couple of days, give yourself some time to recoup."  
iruka was about to try and say something when kakashi leaned over him so only he could hear him.  
"you get some rest and i might be able to convince them to let you have some real food instead of vitamins and protein sludge"  
iruka turned his head to the side so their faces touched. he sighed but did as told. relaxing into the bed he let his eyes slide shut, before the anbu could ask what kakashi had said to make iruka compliant, the man spoke out one last time.  
"fine, but you better bring me ramen"  
kakashi smiled, he knew that although the vitamin and sludge mix they had going into the jounin would keep him alive, it didn’t do anything for ones hunger. his team caught on and shook their heads at iruka's request. it was kurenai who stated quite seriously.  
"you better get approval before you do that, last thing we need is him getting sick."  
"mah, i was going too, i need to go speak to the hokage anyways, figured i could bring something back for him when i returned."  
that was news to them, what did kakashi need to speak to the hokage about? before they could ask, the man in question poofed out of existence leaving them alone with a sleeping iruka.  
"so that was weird right?"  
the others nodded to genma. he was glad it wasn’t just him who had noticed.

*************

kakashi didn’t bother to knock, he just walked right in passed the anbu guard who tried to stop him. the hokage waved the man off and soon it was just the two of them.  
"problem?"  
"oh no, things are going good, he's been fighting to stay awake though. getting him to actually sleep is going to be interesting once they ween him off of the morphine."  
she smiled, she of course could have fired back about how kakashi was much the same when he was in the hospital, but instead chose to move the conversation forward.  
"what do i owe the visit for then"  
"well first off, i'd love to have the opportunity to help ibiki with the man responsible for all of this, but besides that i wanted to know when you think iruka is going to be strong enough to come back to my place. oh and can he have ramen?"  
she blinked at him for a minute before shaking her head.  
"ok one thing at a time. no you may not help ibiki with the interrogations, you and your team have your job for right now. two i think by the end of the week providing he continues to improve. and finally why the hell are you asking if he can have ramen?"  
kakashi shrugged before informing her.  
"he wouldn’t fall asleep so i told him if he did that i might be able to convince the staff to let him have some real food. i just wanted to ask though before promising anything."  
she smiled, kakashi was in deep, that was for sure.  
"he can have the ramen, but only the broth. no noodles or vegetables. i want to start him off slow in case his stomach isn’t inclined to be ready for such a shock after having been encased in chakra and empty for so long"  
kakashi nodded before turning to leave. he paused though before turning back around.  
"yes?"  
"we don’t mind guarding him, im sure you know how much me and my team care for him, but it would be nice for us to not have to wear our anbu masks 24/7."  
"i'll give the staff a list of jounin who are allowed to stay, that should solve any problems you might have."  
he nodded and thanked her before leaving in a flash. he had a promise to fulfill.


	40. breaking out of the hospital and a promotion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka continues to improve over the next few days, being watched thoroughly by kakashi and his team. visits from the hokage help to speed things along. upon returning to kakashi's apartment, iruka and the jounin have a few moments to themselves. relishing each others company after the scare the exam had given them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day. just four more chapters folks. that's it. don't raise your pitchforks at me either, this story is hella long as it is and continuing it past the original ending would be a major pain in my ass. there's plenty more to happen yet so i'll be seeing you all tomorrow for another two chapters.
> 
> keep up with all the kudos and comments, they really do make my day and i love to hear what you guys think.

it had almost been two hours since kakashi left and they were beginning to wonder where he was at, when he suddenly appeared in a puff of smoke, a small bag in hand and not in his anbu gear.  
"umm kakashi i think you forgot something"  
looking down to the bag he looked back up to asuma and shook his head.  
"your gear?"  
it dawned on him, smiling the jounin shook his head again before replying.  
"got the hokage’s clearance, we can ditch the gear and just stay as regular concerned citizens who are friends of the patient. she sent over our names to allow us access to him 24/7 so you can go change and come back"  
the team sighed, they were going to finally be able to not only talk to the man in person, but without the cumbersome masks that hid everything about them. the team nodded and disappeared. leaving kakashi alone with iruka. smiling he walked over to the bed and brought the side table around to in front of iruka as he lay in bed. kakashi gently took the man's hand and gave it a squeeze, he was hoping it would be enough to get the man to wake. it took a couple tries but iruka finally opened his eyes. he smiled when he could actually see kakashi and not the wolf mask he'd been forced to interact with since waking.  
"your back"  
kakashi chuckled before nodding and holding up the paper sack. iruka moved his gaze to the object and smiled.  
"that my ramen?"  
"yes, but the hokage said you could only have the broth right now, so sorry there's no noodles or vegetables."  
"that’s ok, i doubt i'll be able to eat much anyways"  
kakashi nodded and pulled the Styrofoam container out of the bag before fishing out the spoon, he was taking off the lid, when he saw iruka reach up unsteadily to try and move the oxygen mask away. he reached over to help and wasn’t surprised when the mans arm dropped back down to the bed shaking.  
"damn that’s exhausting."  
"your gonna be a little under the weather for a while. that’s ok though, you have me"  
pulling the mask over iruka's head he set it beside the man. reaching back to the spoon he brought some broth up to iruka's mouth and spoon fed the man. iruka sighed.  
"this is embarrassing"  
"mah, i've had the same thing done to me, and i didn’t have someone as good looking"  
iruka laughed before taking another spoonful of broth.  
"how's it taste?"  
"like heaven"  
kakashi smiled and they continued this process for a couple minutes until iruka told him he was full. kakashi put the rest of the broth away and said he'd make sure to take it home so it wouldn’t go bad. they were relaxing in comfortable silence, when the door opened and genma and raidou walked in.  
"hey your awake"  
iruka smiled as that didn’t take as much effort as nodding would have.  
"did you get your ramen?"  
"got broth, but its still better than the sludge their giving me"  
the two jounin laughed, they knew all about the sludge, anyone who was a shinobi knew about it. iruka finally spoke again, though they could tell he was getting tired.  
"can you stay like this?"  
genma nodded to the man.  
"kakashi got permission from the hokage, the med nin's know to leave us be"  
"good"  
iruka sighed, his eyes starting to droop. they opened again when the door opened revealing asuma and kurenai who was carrying a basket. iruka smiled to her before saying.  
"i better get some when i can have solids again"  
she nodded.  
"of course, i'll even deliver to kakashi's place"  
iruka smiled and watched as the team dived into their meals. the conversation was limited as they ate and it seemed to do the trick because when they glanced back to iruka he was asleep again.  
"he's staying awake longer"  
genma said hopefully. kakashi snorted before replying.  
"i think he might be using that jutsu to counteract the morphine, he was wincing earlier and thought i didn’t notice."  
genma sighed looking back to iruka. he couldn’t blame the man for not wanting to be drugged to the hilt, but you had to know when to choose your battles.  
"we could always ask for a hyuuga to block his chakra"  
"that would do more harm than good"  
the group thought about it for a while before raidou asked.  
"what about a tag, its not like he has the strength to even try and remove it, it would leave his base chakra alone, but not allow him to cast anything."  
they nodded that could work. kurenai helped genma make the tag and then they had a whole other argument on where to place it on iruka. ultimately it was decided to use a leg since the med nin's weren’t moving him around yet. once they had put the tag in place they felt iruka's chakra be cut off.  
"bet he sleeps all the way through the night"  
no one took the bet, it was a sure thing. it was a couple hours later when the nightly nurse came in and found them that she was confused.  
"umm the anbu?"  
"had a mission, were replacing them"  
she nodded and went about her business, detaching the oxygen mask.  
"so long as he doesn’t have any trouble breathing we can leave it off. but i'll attach a cranula just in case he needs it."  
"thank you"  
the nurse nodded before scurrying out of the room. 

they weren’t surprised when iruka didn’t wake until morning. his eyes still closed iruka mumbled out.  
"you suck"  
smiled spread across their faces, so kakashi had been right. said jounin replied hotly.  
"your supposed to be resting, not using that little trick to avoid medication"  
iruka didn’t have the energy to do much so he stuck out his tongue which got him quite a few laughs. opening his eyes iruka looked at them all before asking.  
"where is it?"  
"mah were not about to tell you that"  
the chunin scowled at raidou before sighing, they had caught him in the act and now there was no way for him to avoid the drugs they were introducing into his system.  
"don’t suppose i could pay one of you to take the iv out"  
they snorted at him. he hadn’t thought it would work but it had been worth a try. it was genma who asked.  
"how much are they giving you if you thought that was actually an option"  
again iruka stuck out his tongue. genma barked out a laugh before stating.  
"you know most people like being on morphine"  
"most people are crazy"  
"true"  
looking at the ceiling as he was prone to doing, iruka took a minute to collect his thoughts, which were getting fuzzier as time went on. damn the drugs.   
"is there anything you'd like to eat"  
"no, not really"  
kurenai nodded, they weren’t surprised to find that his appetite was waning, with the drugs now in full effect again he wasn’t liable to want to eat.

this pattern continued for a couple more days, iruka would wake every couple hours talking for about ten to fifteen minutes and then crash again. the jounin talked among themselves now that they didn’t have to be careful to make sure someone overheard their names.  
it was Thursday night when the hokage paid them another visit. smiling to them as she approached iruka who was out cold.  
"i take it he's no longer fighting the drugs?"  
they hadn’t bothered to fill her in yet about iruka's little stunt since they had found a way around it. though they were sure that the men nin’s had informed her. kakashi stepped over to move the blanket off of the man's leg revealing the paper tag. the hokage shook her head. channeling her chakra she gently pressed down on his stomach to make sure everything was going alright. iruka woke a couple seconds later.  
"hokage-sama"  
she smiled at him before saying.  
"i hear your attempts at trickery were foiled by my anbu"  
he pouted a minute before getting enough strength to nod.  
"your lucky i wasn’t present when that little tid bit came to light, i would have knocked you upside the head and then you'd be staying here longer"  
"sorry"  
she nodded pulling away she clapped her hands together and asked in a cheerful voice.  
"how would you feel about going home tomorrow"  
iruka brightened immediately.  
"really!"  
the hokage nodded.  
"there's no reason to keep you here so long as you promise to rest and take the medications im sending home with you."  
"he will"  
kakashi promised. iruka was just beaming at the hokage, he could finally get out of this place.  
"good, your still on liquids for a few more days, you can have yogurt and other soft solids so long as you eat slowly. i'll send for someone to get your file all ready so that all you'll need is them to remove the iv tomorrow and sign the last paperwork releasing you into kakashi's care"  
"thank you hokage-sama"  
she nodded and left them to their nightly routine. iruka sighed relaxing into the bed.  
"i finally get out of here"  
the others chuckled, they'd known just how bad he'd wanted out after the last three days had comprised of him offering to pay them for helping with the escape.  
"you still have to listen to the hokage's orders though, you need to take whatever they prescribe to you"  
kurenai told him seriously. iruka nodded, he was growing tired already, but was ecstatic to know he wouldn’t be hooked up to the damn iv for much longer. iruka slept like a baby that night, both the morphine and the fact that he would be allowed to leave tomorrow helping him to rest.  
the following morning the anbu couldn’t help but laugh when iruka woke and wanted to know when they got to leave.  
"i think you have to wait until the sun fully comes up"  
asuma chuckled. iruka pouted a bit before nodding his head. the next thing he asked was if they could get a nurse to remove the iv.  
"hold your jets man, its only a little while longer and you don’t want to be without pain medication"  
"sure i do, means you guys cant force me to sleep for hours on end"  
they snorted at that, they knew that most likely he would be sent home with a prescription for some type of painkiller. it was two aggravating hours later that the nurse first came in to check on them. iruka had since fallen asleep but even kakashi was getting anxious to get the chunin back home. though he didn’t tell his team as much.  
"good morning"  
they nodded to her as she approached iruka and took down the drips he was still attached too. leaving the catheter in for a few moments longer.  
"you might want to wake him, some shinobi don’t react well to having these taken out while their asleep"  
kakashi nodded, gently shaking iruka's shoulder was enough to rouse the man from slumber, once he saw the nurse iruka smiled.  
"im going to take out your iv now"  
the chunin nodded and watched as soon it was out and his arm bandaged, he was finally free.  
"the doctor will be in shortly to go over at home care, then you'll be allowed to leave"  
the jounin waited and after another ten minutes one of the doctors came in with a clipboard. smiling to them he had to say.  
"i never thought i was going to be signing these for you, but you managed to beat the odds my friend."  
iruka smiled as the doctor signed him out before beginning to tell kakashi what he needed to do.  
"he's going to have some anti inflammatory drugs, its vital he takes those, the poison might be gone, but its after effects can linger for a bit. he could suffer from migraines, muscle spasms and cramps. he'll probably be unsteady on his feet for a while so don’t let him walk far without you present. he's going to be given a pain medication which is take as needed, but it is advised that he take it for the next couple days until he can get used to being off the morphine. other than that the only thing i can say is to listen to your body, it will tell you what you need"  
iruka managed a tired nod to the doctor who handed some papers over to kakashi  
"how about we try getting you out of bed for the first time"  
the doctor came to one side of iruka and instructed kakashi in grasping his iruka's upper arm to help him balance as they slid his legs over the bed. once his legs were swung out from underneath the blanket the doctor raised a brow at the tag on iruka's leg.  
"the anbu did it to prevent him from using his technique on the pain drugs."  
the doctor scowled at iruka, who made it his mission to look everywhere but the doctor.shaking his head the doctor reached over and ripped the tag off. instantly chakra flowed forth giving iruka a little more strength.  
"he's going to need all the help he can get to be walking around."  
kakashi nodded to the doctor and followed his lead as they got iruka to his feet. iruka nearly fell,but kakashi braced him against his body and held him upright. the doctor frowned a moment before asking iruka to lift one of his legs. iruka complied but didn’t get it very high off the ground before wincing, the limb starting to shake at the exertion.  
"that’s enough, you can put it down now"  
the leg all but fell to the ground, iruka sighing in relief.  
"is everything ok?"  
kurenai called out. the doctor nodded before explaining.  
"the poison did a number on his muscles no doubt, he's going to have some problems using his muscles until they strengthen back up in a couple days. walking will help with that."  
the jounin nodded, glad to hear that it wasn’t something permanent. the doctor helped to stabilize iruka and pulled him away from kakashi to see him stand. iruka was gritting his teeth and he had a death grip on kakashi's vest, trying desperately not to fall.  
"alright, you can sit back down"  
iruka all but fell against the bed. his legs were trembling.  
"your going to have to get him up a couple times a day to make sure his muscles don’t atrophy. with a little work he'll be back to fighting strength in no time"  
kakashi nodded to the doctor before saying.  
"don’t worry he'll get his exercise and i'll make sure he doesn’t over do it."  
smiling at the jounin the doctor wished them well before leaving for the final time. once he was gone genma asked.  
"i'll break you out now if you want to pay me"  
"bite me"  
the jounin laughed at iruka’s sense of humor. kurenai went to get a wheelchair so they could leave, they all knew iruka couldn’t walk that far yet so they would just borrow one and have it returned later. seeing the wheelchair iruka made a face, but raidou just asked.  
"you wanna walk the whole way?"  
iruka paled at that and shook his head. raidou nodded before responding ' i thought so' it wasn’t hard for asuma and kakashi to get iruka situated in the chair and then they were off. taking the elevator out of the icu wing down to the main floor. once they were outside iruka inhaled deeply. they gave him a moment to just enjoy being outside before starting on their way to kakashi's place. they were lucky enough that it was still early so that not a lot of people were around. those that were out and about were shinobi and paid them no mind. tilting his head back iruka asked.  
"so when are you guys on active duty again?"  
"not until the whole mess of your exam is taken care of, the hokage is not a happy woman. the fact that they denied you your kekkai genkai was enough for removal, but the poisoning...that just takes the cake."  
iruka waited a moment before treading carefully.  
"aren’t you guys going to be bored not doing anything"  
kurenai turned to face him as she walked beside his wheelchair.  
"we'll be helping kakashi take care of you, besides you can come and watch us train for a change."  
iruka perked up a little at the last part. turning his head enough to tell asuma.  
"i will pay you to knock raidou on his ass"  
"hey, what did i do?"  
asuma just chuckled at the man, how they had missed this. to think that it could have been taken away from them, made their blood boil. coming to the stairs of the apartment building iruka couldn’t help but say.  
"there's no way i can climb that"  
the jounin snorted before raidou and asuma each took one side of the wheelchair and hoisted him up the flights of stairs, leaving kakashi to get the door. once they had unlocked the door and entered they put him back down. kakashi went into the living room and they followed after taking their own sandals off, wheeling iruka in with them. they all found a place to sit while kakashi went to make some tea for them all. they didn’t say a word as they noticed iruka was fading fast, his eyes half closed as he slumped in the chair. kakashi brought the tea out and smirked beneath his mask. handing the tea to his teammates before taking his own seat. iruka was out cold.  
"well at least you wont have to force him to sleep"  
genma muttered quietly as he took a drink of tea. kakashi nodded, he had wondered how long iruka would last, he'd done far better than he had expected.  
"so are you two going to come watch us all train in a few days?"  
kakashi nodded.  
"he'll get cabin fever if i force him to stay here. besides he wants to see you beat up raidou"  
asuma chuckled as raidou sputtered about having done nothing to gain the man's ire. they enjoyed each others company for an hour or so before they told kakashi to call if he needed anything. he waved them off, he wasn’t planning on needing their help, but it was nice to know he could count on them. once kakashi had shown them out he went back into the living room and sighed. he really should get iruka up and move him to the bed before he got a crick in his neck. nodding his head kakashi came to kneel in front of the chunin and gently shook his arm. tired eyes came open and kakashi smiled.  
"come on, lets get you comfortable in bed ne?"  
iruka raised his head only to realize that kakashi's team was no longer there. letting kakashi wheel him to the back of the house iruka asked when they had left.  
"not even five minutes ago, they have some things to do and wanted to let you rest. i thought you'd be more comfortable in bed"  
"at least its not a hospital bed"  
kakashi nodded as he turned the chair around to be able to life the man up easily and place him on the bed. iruka stopped him though.  
"can i try?"  
kakashi was reluctant to let him tax himself, but he remembered what the doctor had said. nodding kakashi positioned himself to be able to catch iruka if needed. he helped iruka lift himself onto his shaking legs before following him the couple steps to the bed, the jounin then helped iruka back down to the bed where iruka sighed, his legs already felt like jello.  
"thanks"  
"no problem, how do you feel?"  
"tired mostly, weak, its weird not being in full control of your motor functions"  
kakashi nodded before replying.  
"been there, done that."  
iruka smiled at him as kakashi pulled the blankets up to cover his legs and torso. once he was comfortable iruka asked.  
"what are you going to do now that you have some freedom?"  
kakashi frowned at brown haired man.  
"i was going to join you for a nap"  
iruka smiled and nodded, kakashi went to the other side of the bed and climbed underneath the covers. wrapping his arms around iruka to draw him closer. the jounin felt iruka's hand weakly come to rest on top of his heart and he smiled into the mans hair. once he was sure iruka was settled he spoke.  
"get some sleep, when we get up i'll run a hot bath for you"  
"you are a saint"  
kakashi chuckled and kissed the mans head, it wasn’t long before both of them were out cold. they slept for close to four hours before kakashi woke up, he stayed still so as to not disturb iruka. instead just running his hands through the mans hair gently. he had missed this. this closeness to another person. it was close to another hour when iruka stirred against his chest.  
"you alright?"  
"mmm comfy"  
"well then we can stay right here."  
"kakashi?"  
"yeah"  
"im sorry if i worried you"  
kakashi smiled before stating honestly.  
"you about gave me a heart attack actually, but i forgive you. its not like you chose to dose yourself up with a poison normally reserved for assassinations."  
iruka gave a huff before stating.  
"true, im not that crazy. im still sorry though."  
iruka tilted his head back to be able to look into kakashi's visible eye.  
"did you murder anyone while i was sleeping?"  
"ibiki wont let me"  
the jounin pouted. iruka snickered at the copy nin.  
"that’s probably for the best, don’t want you locked up with mizuki you'd probably cause a riot with terrorizing the inmates"  
kakashi smiled down to the man in his arms.  
"are you insinuating that i would make a bad prisoner?"  
"very bad"  
"mah, i'd keep people on their toes"  
iruka chuckled against him, finally iruka sighed and asked.  
"can i have that bath now?"  
"sure."  
kakashi gently moved out from underneath iruka and went to draw the bath. once he had it prepared the jounin helped iruka get to his feet again and get situated in the wheelchair. it was as short trip to the bathroom, but kakashi knew it was too long of a walk for iruka just yet. he helped iruka out of the wheelchair to stand and began to help him shrug out of the sleeping clothes the hospital had given him. iruka turned beet red as they undressed him. kakashi chuckled before mentioning that he'd seen it all before. that just seemed to make iruka blush all the more. shaking his head kakashi carefully maneuvered iruka to step over the rim of the tub and get standing in the water before slowly lowering the man into the steaming water. once he had iruka settled he asked.  
"do you need anything?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"no i got it from here, though you might want to check on me to make sure i don’t fall asleep in here"  
kakashi nodded and told him to enjoy the bath. once he was outside the bathroom kakashi took a moment to calm his rapidly beating heart. to be able to hold iruka again, to feel his bare flesh again. he shuddered and tried to get his body back under his control.

iruka enjoyed the warm water, it helped with the mild ache in his legs from standing. he knew he shouldn’t be discouraged and that he was lucky to even be alive. it still didn’t help him to know just how reliant he was going to be on kakashi. sighing iruka got back to washing himself so that he could get out of the cooling water. once he was sure he was done bathing iruka called for kakashi. the silver haired nin appeared in the doorway.  
"im done"  
nodding his head, kakashi helped iruka to stand, and get out of the tub before seating him on the toilet while the jounin drained the water. iruka used the fluffy towel that had been sitting on the sink counter to start drying himself. halfway through he couldn’t do it anymore, his limbs strained at the strength it took to raise them. kakashi wordlessly took over for him, knowing when iruka's body had simply had enough. kakashi brought him some boxers and a pair of sleeping pants. once they got iruka dressed and back into the wheelchair kakashi asked.  
"bed or living room"  
"living room please"  
nodding his head kakashi steered them down the hallway and around the corner to the living room. once there he helped iruka onto the couch where he could sit or adjust himself to lay down. moving the wheelchair away he turned back to see iruka almost asleep.  
"im gonna grab a shower."  
iruka nodded while yawning. smiling at the sight kakashi left the man to go back to sleep and took the time to enjoy a nice hot shower. all the previous ones had been fast and efficient so as to get back to iruka's side at the hospital. now that he knew the man was safe and just in the other room he took advantage of being able to thoroughly enjoy himself. stepping out of the shower kakashi dried off and put on a pair of lounge pants for himself, going shirtless as well he made his way back out into the living room. iruka was out like a light, smiling at the sight, kakashi took his seat and grabbed the book on the table next to his chair to read for a bit.  
iruka woke to a hushed voice talking to someone, it didn’t take long for his brain to connect that the voice was kakashi's and whoever he was talking too either wasn’t in the room where he could hear them or he was on the phone with someone.  
"no no....i don’t care....are you sure? alright alright i'll take care of it tomorrow if your in that much of a hurry, but it'll cost you. alright i'll see you tomorrow then"  
with that iruka heard the phone being hung back up and kakashi's steps as he returned to his chair. once he was sure kakashi was seated, iruka opened his eyes and asked.  
"what was that about?"  
kakashi didn’t even twitch at the sudden voice instead answering quite coolly.  
"im afraid that’s classified"  
iruka snorted knowing that kakashi was pulling his leg.  
"its just a simple recon job they need me for, its a day mission so i wont be gone more than a couple hours and i'll call one of the other to come over and stay with you while im gone"  
"it must be important if the hokage is letting them call you right after i got out of the hospital."  
"yeah got the feeling that their slammed."  
iruka smiled, he was glad that kakashi hadn’t outright refused the mission just for his sake. he knew that people like kakashi could get bored if cooped up in the village too long. kakashi was a fighter after all, it was what he was meant to do. kakashi looked to the clock before nodding and fishing out a bottle from his vest pocket, iruka groaned at the sight of the medication.  
"mah its not so bad, this is just the anti inflammatory. you don’t have to take pain pills until bed time"  
iruka brightened at that and after kakashi brought him a glass of water he easily took the pill before speaking.  
" you know you could just summon mayonaka or pakkun to watch me while your gone"  
the glare he got told him to shut up.  
"i was just saying"  
"they cant help you to the bathroom, or get you food or water."  
"its not like i'd die from having to wait a little"  
again the glare told him to shut up.  
"alright alright, who were you going to ask?"  
"does it matter?"  
"no of course not, i just wanted to know who i would need to be apologizing too for the inconvenience"  
kakashi snorted before replying.  
"your not an inconvenience, your their friend."  
"i still feel like they've done too much for me, you've done too much for me"  
"mah just wait till i come back from using the sharigan too much and cant lift a finger for weeks on end, then we'll be even"  
iruka smiled at him before saying.  
"i would think that you would learn your limitations after so long"  
"mah im a slow learner"  
"bullshit"  
kakashi laughed at the chunin sitting across from him. then it hit him. iruka still didn’t know that he had passed. that he had been awarded the rank of jounin. it had never come up while the man was in the hospital, iruka was often too tired to care what was going on around him. it hadn’t been until the last few days that the chunin had perked up a bit. smiling kakashi spoke in a cheery tone.  
"im surprised you haven’t asked how your exam went"  
iruka gave him a flat look before stating.  
"im lucky to be alive, i don’t give much of a crap about their stupid test after that"  
"true, but you should be proud of yourself, you continued the exam long after other people would have dropped out."  
iruka shrugged his shoulders before relaxing once more into the couch. kakashi smirked before telling the man.  
"you passed by the way, your a jounin now"  
iruka blinked at him for a couple moments before stating.  
"jounin"  
"yes, the hokage herself signed the paperwork after you were admitted to the hospital."  
iruka smiled he couldn’t believe that he had managed to pass. he was sure that they would have come up with some crap excuse to disqualify him at the last moment.   
"iruka?"  
"hmm oh yeah sorry i was just thinking."  
kakashi nodded, understanding that the man needed to wrap his head around the fact that he had passed the exam that had nearly killed him.  
"so what happens now?"  
the newly awarded jounin asked. kakashi smirked.  
"you rest and recover and once the hokage clears you, you can either return to working for ibiki or start taking missions. hell you could probably do both."  
iruka couldn’t believe it, he had more options now than ever before, he could literally choose what he wanted to do instead of being forced to settle with what he was allowed to do. looking to kakashi, iruka said.  
"thank you"  
"for what? you did all the hard work"  
iruka shook his head to kakashi before telling the man.  
"without you guys i wouldn’t have been able to pass it. so thank you"  
kakashi nodded his head, he was glad that iruka seemed happy about his promotion. then suddenly iruka started laughing. confused kakashi raised an eyebrow and waited for iruka to explain.  
"gods, please tell me i'll be allowed to shove this in mizuki's face"  
kakashi laughed with him.  
"if you'll agree to be my chaperon i'll go with you just to be able to remember the look on his face"  
that made iruka laugh all the more. it took a while for them to settle down, but once they had iruka was out of breath and he was struggling to stay awake again.  
"don’t fight it iruka, your tired. go to sleep"  
"you'll be here when i wake up?"  
"i promise"  
iruka nodded tiredly before turning his head to the side to get comfortable. kakashi waited a couple minutes before getting up so as to not disturb the man. he quickly dialed the number, it picked up on the second ring.  
"hello?"  
"raidou its kakashi, i need you to come watch iruka for me tomorrow, ibiki is giving me a day mission that they need my eye for."  
"sure thing, what time?"  
"nine"  
"we'll be there"  
"thanks"  
hanging up the phone kakashi twisted around to watch iruka sleep for a moment before going into the kitchen to rustle up something that they could both eat.  
iruka woke to the smell of food being cooked. his stomach let him know that it wanted said food. smiling he called out.  
"what are you making?"  
"eggplant soup"  
"it smells really good"  
kakashi poked his head out of the kitchen and let iruka know.  
"dinner will be done in 5, genma and raidou are coming over tomorrow to hang with you during the day"  
"ok"  
once the soup was done kakashi came out into the living room with two mugs full. putting them down on the coffee table he asked iruka if he thought he could feed himself or if he would need help.  
"let me try"  
nodding the jounin helped iruka to get a firm grasp on the mug and handed him a spoon. iruka dove in, it not only smelled good but it was delicious. unfortunately it wasn’t long before his arms started to tremble and ache from the strain of holding the mug.  
"can you take this?"  
kakashi turned back around from his own meal and reached out to take the mug carefully, not saying a word when iruka sighed as his hands were finally able to relax.  
"did you get enough"  
"oh yes, it was great"  
smiling kakashi finished his own soup before putting the dishes in the sink to clean later. returning to the living room he saw iruka watching him.  
"what?"  
"nothing"  
shaking his head kakashi approached the man and asked if he was ready to retire to the bedroom for the rest of the night.   
"sure, im about ready to crash again anyways"  
"alright let me get you that pain pill and then we'll head to bed."  
iruka nodded and took the pill without complaint he was too tired and achy to care if he had to take the damn pain pill. kakashi helped him get back into the wheelchair and steered him down the hallway into the bedroom. once they were in place kakashi helped iruka to stand and climb into bed. wrapping him up in blankets the jounin moved the wheelchair away before climbing in on his side of the bed. it was only a couple seconds before he had his arms full of iruka. the two adjusted around until they found their comfortable positions for the night.  
"what time do you leave?"  
"i have to be there by ten, raidou and genma will be here at nine"  
"is it dangerous?"  
"shouldn’t be, im just going to be observing someone"  
iruka nodded against his chest, his hand once more finding its place over kakashi's heart. feeling the steady thump of the organ beneath his fingertips. he could feel kakashi's hand running through his loose hair and it was only a matter of minutes before he drifted off to sleep. kakashi wasn’t too far behind him.


	41. i do too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka is still on the mend, but with kakashi and his team the newly made jounin is sure to recover in no time. while waiting for his body to corporate with him, iruka gets to watch the anbu team train together and even play a game with them. the game ends up leading to a rather steamy encounter between iruka and kakashi, not that either of them are complaining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the day. some major cuteness is ahead folks. not to mention some smexyness for you all to enjoy. plus there's a nice little ending to the chapter.
> 
> second chapter of the day will be up in a couple minutes. thanks again to all of those sending me kudos and the lovely comments i get to read everyday. i've even gotten some rather amusing ones asking for a sequel. we'll just have to wait and see how this ends though wont we?

kakashi woke first like always and took the time to watch iruka sleep for a few more minutes before sighing, he needed to get ready. as gently as he could kakashi maneuvered iruka to lay down on the bed, covering him with more of the blanket. smiling at the fact that he had managed to get out from under the man without waking him, kakashi went to take a shower.   
iruka was only half awake when he realized he wasn’t as warm as he should be. reaching out his hand grasped nothing but blanket. eyes opening he saw that he was indeed still in bed but that kakashi was gone. his heart began to race, had he missed his chance to say goodbye. no, the shower was on. sighing iruka felt his heart slow down in his chest as he relaxed in the warm blankets. closing his eyes he listened to the water in the shower continue for a couple minutes more before shutting off. the door to the bathroom came open and soft footsteps came back into the room, he could hear kakashi moving around quietly in the room. opening his eyes he saw the nin with his back to him, showing a variety of scars on the pale flesh. they rippled with each movement kakashi made. watching the man get his clothes on he stayed silent. until he heard the click of the case containing his anbu gear.  
"is it hard to get that stuff on and off"  
kakashi looked over his shoulder, his left eye closed so as not to waste any chakra.  
"at first it was a pain in the ass, but you get used to it and figure out the best way to get it on"  
iruka just watched as kakashi turned around and let him sate his curiosity. the shin guards were easy enough, but the plates on his arms and chest took a little more maneuvering and then you had to click the straps in place. once he had secured all of his armor, kakashi came to lean over the chunin, smiling he opened his other eye and let the sharingan take in the sight of the man laying in the bed. iruka looked up to him and smiled before using a shaking hand to cover the eye gently.  
"don’t do that, you'll waste your chakra for nothing"  
"its not nothing, i get to have the memory forever and with today being quite boring i can let it play over and over"  
kakashi gently used his gloved hands to take away iruka's shaking one and put it back on the bed where it could rest. iruka just blushed at him and kakashi couldn’t help but like the sight before him. leaning forward he kissed iruka, by now they were used to the friction of the mask being in the way. it didn’t stop them from enjoying the kiss. pulling back kakashi said.  
"lets get you up, unless you want genma to see you laying in my bed"  
iruka shook his head which got a laugh out of kakashi as he made his way over to iruka's side of the bed with the wheelchair. by now they had gotten a certain rhythm to how to get him in and out of the wheelchair so it only took a moment. kakashi made iruka try standing for a minute or two before allowing the tired man to sit. wheeling him out into the living room kakashi asked.  
"chair or couch?"  
iruka shrugged before commenting.  
"you could just leave me in here, it would be easier for raidou and genma to move me around if they don’t have to get me back in the chair"  
kakashi shook his head and walked around to the front of the wheelchair. kneeling to make them eye to eye.  
"you have to practice standing and taking a few steps. besides im not concerned about what is easy for them."  
iruka nodded before answering.  
"couch"  
smiling kakashi maneuvered the wheelchair over there and once again got iruka standing, this time though a couple inches away so as to force him to try and walk. iruka gritted his teeth but managed the few steps with kakashi supporting him. once iruka was seated he took some heavy breaths. kakashi stayed knelt in front of him to make sure he was alright before getting up to move the wheelchair out of the way. before he could do anything else there was a knock on his door. going to the door kakashi returned with both genma and raidou who were only in their jounin attire.  
"thanks for coming over"  
they waved him off as they took up residence in the chairs in the living room. kakashi nodded and looked to a tired iruka.  
"i'll see you later today, try to be good ne?"  
the other jounin watched as iruka flipped him off, kakashi laughed and disappeared in a puff of smoke. it was genma who asked.  
"trouble in paradise"  
"he made me walk"  
"ah, well the doctor did say you had to do that"  
genma ignored the tired glare he got from the other jounin. instead opting to let raidou continue the conversation.  
"you have your meds yet?"  
iruka shook his head, nodding raidou got up and asked where they'd be.  
"kitchen"  
entering the smaller room the man found the prescribed meds along with a note.  
' raidou,genma, here's his pills good luck getting him to take the pain medicine, the inflammatory doesn’t seem to bother him as much. either way i should be back by 5, make sure to get him up and move him around a little even if he protests.'  
nodding his head raidou fished out the three pills iruka needed to take and grabbed a glass of water before reentering the living room. iruka glared at the offered objects,but genma piped up.  
"trust me when i say you don’t want to fight raidou about taking pills. he once put me in a headlock and crammed some down my throat"  
that got raidou a stunned look from the younger man, the anbu nodded. it was true he'd do just about anything to make sure that iruka took his pills when he needed them. luckily the threat seemed to do the trick and iruka took them all with only a frown. once that was handled raidou took his seat again and asked how he'd been.  
"tired, my limbs keep shaking whenever i try to use them too much"  
his friends nodded, it was to be expected, but they couldn’t blame the man for being discouraged by it.  
"what have you been up too?"  
it was an innocent question, but raidou knew that the answer he was about to get from his lover would be anything but.  
"we had dinner, caught up on some chores and then he fucked my brains out"  
iruka turned scarlet red, all the blood rushing to his cheeks.  
"problem?"  
iruka sputtered to find an answer finally just going with.  
"too much information genma"  
the man shrugged his shoulders before fishing out a senbon and popping it in his mouth. iruka continued to blush, staring at the floor. raidou smiled at the man's innocent nature.  
"why don’t you try and get some sleep, those pain pills will be kicking in soon anyways and unless you want genma asking you embarrassing questions while your doped up, you had better be asleep"  
iruka frowned at genma who shrugged his shoulders. turning his head to face raidou iruka asked.  
"you'd let him take advantage of me?"  
"your the one who offered to pay asuma to kick my ass remember"  
iruka frowned but got comfortable on the couch and closed his eyes. the two jounin watching him smiled. they waited a while before talking to one another.  
"your lucky kurenai wasn’t here to scold you for that"  
raidou told his lover, genma moved the senbon in his mouth around for a moment before replying.  
"mah he's not a prude, just easy to embarrass."  
raidou regarded the sleeping figure a moment.  
"he's been good for kakashi"  
"he's been good for all of us"  
raidou smiled, he was glad that he wasn’t the only one to see it. he just hoped that with iruka gaining jounin status the man wouldn’t become hardened by the missions he might have to take. they let iruka sleep until just after noon. raidou waking the man up to eat some soup. iruka was still obviously doped up because he was slow to move. smiling genma asked.  
"whats your favorite color?"  
raidou frowned at his lover knowing what he was doing. iruka paused in feeding himself to answer.  
"blue"  
iruka took a couple more spoonfuls of soup before being interrupted again.  
"do you love kakashi?"  
"genma!"  
raidou shouted, it was none of their business how the man felt about their captain. genma just shot a glare back at him, he wanted to know. before they could get into a full out argument iruka answered.  
"yeah, i think i do"  
genma smiled while pulling off a 'see i told you so' face. raidou shook his head before stating.  
"no more questions, finish your soup"  
iruka was able to eat a little more before putting it aside. relaxing back into the couch iruka suddenly spoke up.  
"do you love kakashi?"  
raidou was laughing at genma, who had a shocked look on his face.  
"umm no? i love raidou iruka, you know we've been together a while"  
iruka frowned at that and asked again.  
"do you love kakashi?"  
looking over to his lover with desperate eyes, raidou was no help he just kept laughing.  
"yeah alright i love him as a friend"  
iruka nodded his head before getting comfortable and falling back to sleep. finally genma asked.  
"what do you think that was about?"  
raidou shrugged before commenting.  
"who knows, he's on painkillers genma, his mind could be thinking he's asking a totally different question. i wouldn’t worry too much about it."  
genma nodded but started to fiddle with senbon in his mouth, rolling it along his tongue to try and soothe himself from the awkward question. they knew better than to expect kakashi on time, missions ran late all the time, so when it was nearly 6 and he hadn’t shown up they started doing what they do best. argue over what they were going to fix for dinner. they were almost done compromising when kakashi appeared.  
"how was the mission?"  
"boring"  
kakashi took his seat and asked.  
"how was he?"  
the anbu asked while motioning towards the sleeping figure on the couch.  
"slept most of the time,especially after we got him to take his meds"  
kakashi nodded he had expected as much. before he could ask anything else of his teammates a drowsy voice called out.  
"genma loves you"  
raidou burst into laughter while genma tried to blend in with the chair he was currently seated in, turning beet red. kakashi raised an eyebrow to the statement before saying.  
"does he now?"  
iruka nodded his head, before pulling himself into a semi reclining state. kakashi turned to genma and said.  
"i didn’t know you felt that way"  
"shut up, he's on drugs"  
kakashi snickered before asking iruka.  
"what makes you think he loves me?"  
"he told me so"  
nodding his head kakashi turned his head back around to genma who was sputtering.  
"he kept asking over and over again so i just answered him, i said i loved you as a friend, but that i was with raidou"  
kakashi laughed at the poor mans humiliation. raidou was wiping his eyes trying not to cry.  
"well it seems you all had an interesting day while i was gone"  
genma muttered that they should go and headed for the door. raidou got up to follow, laughing the whole way. before they got the chance to leave kakashi called out.  
"oh genma i don’t know how i'll get on with out you"  
"damn it kakashi that’s not funny"  
raidou by the sounds of it thought it was hilarious. smiling to the drowsy man on the couch kakashi waited to hear the door shut before asking.  
"so you have a fun day with them?"  
iruka yawned before saying.  
"getting to see his reaction was the best part"  
kakashi laughed as he took notice of the man’s apparent awareness.  
"you planned this?"  
"he tried to get me to answer questions while i was on painkillers, thought i'd pay him back for it"  
shaking his head kakashi gave the man props for being evil to his teammate. he would have to make sure to tell raidou about it. bringing over the wheelchair to the couch he motioned iruka to start moving himself towards the chair. the man didn’t argue, but still needed some help to make it the couple steps to the chair. once he was secured, kakashi rolled him down the hall and into the bedroom, iruka was about to ask what they were doing there, when kakashi opened his anbu gear case and took his mask off of his belt, putting it back where it belonged. smiling iruka didn’t complain as he got to watch kakashi become himself again as he slowly shed the protective layers given to all anbu. once kakashi had placed the gear back where it belonged, he secured the box and turned to face him.  
"well how about some food?"  
iruka nodded, going back down the hallway they entered the kitchen,rolling iruka into a corner of the kitchen the jounin started to prepare something to eat for the two of them.  
"so your mission went well?"  
"hmm oh yeah, was boring as hell though. really a genin squad could have done it"  
iruka laughed before stating.  
"genin do not have the ability to sit still and observe something long enough to complete the mission, i would know i used to teach pre-genin and getting them to pay attention to anything was a herculean task"  
"mah, still think it was over ranked."  
iruka shook his head at kakashi who began to put together the ingredients into a pot and set it to boil.  
"what are we having?"  
"stew"  
iruka smiled, he was slowly being allowed back onto a more solid diet, he just had to be careful to chew everything to not over task his stomach. stew sounded amazing though. they talked as the stew was cooking and after wheeling iruka back into the living room, kakashi brought out two bowls of the stew alone with some tea on a tray for them. they ate in relative silence, iruka tiring with the effort it took to feed himself. once they were done and the dishes were cleaned up kakashi asked.  
"do you want to go see my team train tomorrow?"  
"yeah that would be fun. i need to make sure to bring my wallet though"  
raising an eyebrow at the man iruka laughed.  
"i have to pay asuma to throw raidou around"  
kakashi shook his head at iruka before saying.  
"i doubt asuma would take your money for something he's probably going to do anyways. besides they might not be paired against each other tomorrow. we draw names."  
iruka pouted at that, he really wanted to see raidou get thrown around a bit.  
"look i promise that if i get paired against raidou i'll give him some solid hits for you alright"  
iruka nodded at that, he had no doubts that if the two were paired together kakashi would win. iruka knew he was putting the man up on a pedestal, but he couldn’t help but have faith in the stronger man. smiling to kakashi he suddenly remembered something. his smiled broadened.  
"i just remembered you owe me something"  
kakashi raised a brow at that before realization dawned on him.  
"you cant have sake with those painkillers iruka"  
"not that the other thing"  
other thing? ah yes, the mask. smiling to iruka the jounin nodded his head. it was only fair, and to be honest he was kinda of looking forward to showing iruka his face, one he wouldn’t have to wear it anymore around his own apartment which would be much more comfortable and two he'd get to see iruka's reaction.  
"i see and you want to collect"  
iruka nodded his head. kakashi rose from his chair and came to kneel before iruka and pulled his hitae off of his head. revealing the sharingan eye which would remember this for him forever.  
"go ahead"  
iruka smiled as he reached out and gently pulled the mask down off of kakashi's face revealing more pale skin before the mask finally fell below the man's chin and clung to his neck. iruka just stared for a minute. kakashi was handsome, he always knew that of course, but his face was backing up the fact. reaching out iruka ran his fingertips across the man's cheeks down to his lips and finally to his chin.  
"well do i pass the not a monster test?"  
iruka laughed, he knew all about naruto's random theories. leaning forward in the wheelchair iruka braced himself with his arms and kissed kakashi. the older man made it easier for him by leaning forward, allowing iruka to lean further back in the chair. pulling away from one another iruka said.  
"that was nice, the mask gets in the way"  
kakashi nodded, he preferred being able to feel iruka, but there were going to be sometimes where he would be forced to wear it. reaching down kakashi pulled the mask up over his head and put it on the coffee table. iruka looked at him a little confused. smirking at iruka he informed the confused man.  
"well its not like i need it in my own apartment, especially after you've seen my face. might as well be comfortable"  
iruka smiled and nodded, he was glad that kakashi wasn’t going to be putting it back on until they left the apartment. kakashi stood and walked behind the wheelchair, pushing iruka along down the hallway.  
"where are we going?"  
"bed"  
"but why, its still early"  
kakashi didn’t answer and iruka tilted his head back to look at him, but all kakashi did was smile down at him. sighing iruka let kakashi do as he pleased. entering the bedroom, iruka was helped back into bed before kakashi joined him. the latter still in his jounin attire. snuggling up to one another iruka couldn’t help but ask.  
"is this your attempt to get me to sleep more?"  
kakashi chuckled before answering.  
"no, i figure you got enough sleep during the day, but this is the only way i can hold you, the couch isn’t big enough for the both of us"  
iruka blushed, kakashi had wanted to hold him. snuggling closer to the man, iruka tugged on the vest that was in his way. kakashi laughed before sitting up enough to shrug out of the armored vest.   
"better?"  
"much"  
they laid there in silence for a while before iruka told kakashi.  
"genma asked me if i loved you"  
kakashi looked down at the brown locks, unable to see iruka’s face.  
"you didn’t have to answer him"  
"i know, but i wanted to"  
"alright"  
it was silent for a couple more minutes before iruka got the courage to say.  
"i do...i mean im sure that im-"  
iruka was cut off by kakashi tilting his head back and kissing him to shut him up. iruka enjoyed the kiss, kakashi tasted good to him, like fresh berries. opening his mouth he let kakashi deepen the kiss and soon their tongues were wrapped around one another, iruka groaned into the kiss his hand coming up to grasp kakashi's shirt, the other going around the jounin's head to bring him closer. kakashi’s own hands were wrapped around iruka pulling him flush against him. they stayed that way until the need for air became too much and they separated panting. iruka smiled before saying.  
"i think im gonna burn all those masks you have"  
kakashi laughed before leaning down to kiss iruka again.  
"you can try, but i have some in the anbu gear box."  
iruka frowned at that so much for that plan. kakashi kissed him again and iruka forgot to continue frowning. pulling away again iruka asked.  
"you better not use this as some technique to shut me up"  
kakashi nodded.  
"wouldn’t dream of it"  
"mmhmm"  
iruka didn’t quite believe him, but there was also no way he could see himself staying mad at the ninja. letting his arms fall back to the bed as they had started to shake iruka smiled and said.  
"sorry guess you'll have to do all the work"  
kakashi shook his head, leaning down to give the man a chaste kiss before replying.  
"i think i can handle the workload"  
iruka shook his head at him, laying his head against kakashi. closing his eyes as he felt the nin's skilled fingers start to comb through his hair. god that felt good. sighing he relaxed, his body was tired even though he hadn’t done much. kakashi could feel the tension in iruka’s body fading. he was sure the man didn’t realize just how tense he had been, but now it was fading and the jounin seemed to be drifting off to sleep again. being careful not to disturb iruka he reached over the side of the bed and fished out his book from his vest pocket before starting to read in bed.

*************

kakashi's eyes snapped open at the small movement against his chest. looking down he saw hazel eyes watching him in the dark.  
"you ok?"  
iruka nodded before explaining.  
"bathroom"  
nodding his head kakashi slid out of the bed and went to get the wheelchair, before stopping, turning to iruka he walked over and without much effort picked the man up bridal style to carry him down the hall. iruka laughed before asking why he wasn’t using the wheelchair.  
"this is faster and my feet are getting cold"  
iruka snorted but allowed the man to help him into the bathroom, kakashi stayed in the room while he took care of his business, before scooping him back up and bringing him back to bed. once they were back in bed iruka jumped. looking to kakashi he scowled.  
"your feet are cold"  
"i told you so"  
sighing iruka allowed the man to put his feet under his legs to warm them up. in return he wrapped a hand around kakashi's shirt again before closing his eyes. kakashi smiled before doing the same thing. 

*****************

it wasn’t until he woke up the next morning that it hit kakashi that he hadn’t given iruka his nightly pills because they had fallen asleep. cursing he looked down to the sleeping man. iruka didn’t seem to be in any pain, but he'd make sure to give him his morning pills at breakfast. he laid in bed for a couple more minutes soaking up the warmth that iruka’s body was giving off. knowing that they needed to get up soon if they didn’t want to miss any of the teams matches, he gently shook the jounin to wake him up. iruka woke like he typically did, by trying to burrow his head into the warmth around him. when the warmth started to laugh iruka knew he wasn’t going to win.  
"what time is it?"  
"time to get up"  
iruka groaned but nodded against kakashi's shoulder. he felt kakashi shift as if to get out of bed and managed to snake his arms around the man's waist before he could. kakashi smirked when he felt the arms come around his waist.  
"now iruka you don’t want me to have to take serious measures to extract you from this bed do you?"  
iruka laughed against him before saying.  
"i can use extreme measures too"  
"oh really? and what is that?"  
"no kissing"  
kakashi frowned, iruka certainly knew how to get results. leaning over the jounin kakashi turned iruka onto his back. looking into the hazel eyes he asked.  
"are you sure you wish to invoke such a dramatic situation upon yourself"  
"me? your the one who will give in"  
kakashi smiled before leaning in to steal a kiss, iruka didn’t fight him on it, he just moved his arms to wrap around kakashi's neck to hold him in place. soon their tongues were dancing again and kakashi had to remember to hold himself up off of the healing man lest he hurt him. moaning against kakashi, iruka couldn’t believe that he was in this situation to begin with. who would have thought that the copy ninja himself would be trying to seduce him. pulling back, kakashi boasted.  
"are you sure you want to say no to that?"  
iruka sighed before shaking his head. kakashi had won. the copy nin helped him get up and changed once they were dressed and ready to go, iruka was forced to take his pills under the watchful gaze of his...well he didn’t know what kakashi was to him. but he was something. having the hard part taken care of, kakashi said they'd forgo the wheelchair as he could just carry him for the short distance from his transportation jutsu. iruka didn’t bother to argue, kakashi's arms were way more comfortable than that stupid chair. they disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear inside the barrier of the anbu training grounds. iruka was happy to be outside again, relishing in the feel of the breeze on his skin and the fresh air in his lungs. approaching the team of anbu iruka waved. they smiled back, but it was genma who asked.  
"what happened to the wheelchair? did it meet some unfortunate fate"  
iruka snorted before shaking his head. kakashi set him down in the grass and iruka made himself comfortable against the man's chest, it was really the only way he could be sitting up for an extended amount of time, he didn’t have the strength yet to hold himself up for long.  
"no, we just agreed that this was faster."  
genma nodded but sent a sly grin to kakashi. kakashi ignored him. kurenai pulled out a little jar with some well worn papers in it.  
"alright lets draw."  
the papers were drawn out, until each persons name had been picked at least once. then kurenai said.  
"and since it was your turn last time, genma you get to draw again."  
the man nodded and took out another slip of paper. iruka watched as they revealed their matches to one another.  
' kakashi vs kurenai  
asuma vs genma  
raidou vs genma'  
iruka pouted when he saw that asuma wasn’t going to get to fight raidou, but then he asked.  
"umm wont those two go easy on each other because of their relationship"  
the others laughed at him which just confused him all the more.   
"trust me, we don’t go easy on one another, we all made deals with our partners so we get something special if we beat them. that’s enough incentive for us to kick the crap out of each other"  
genma said proudly. iruka just smiled at the nin before stating.  
"im guessing that i don’t want to know what your going to get if you win"  
genma nodded, raidou was shaking his head, asuma and kurenai were just glad that they didn’t have to answer, they felt sorry for raidou some times. genma just loved to brag about all the sex he got. with that the first match began. kurenai stood and walked into the field. kakashi got iruka comfortable laying on the ground to where he could still see before joining her.  
"who do you think will win?"  
iruka asked. the team members shrugged at him.  
"depends, kakashi has the advantage of the sharingan, he cant be trapped in her genjitsu so she has to use her other skills to best him."  
nodding iruka watched as the two started the subtle dance of a ninja battle. iruka didn’t know if he should be happy that it appeared kakashi was winning or feel sad that kurenai was losing. they were both his friends, well one of them was more than a friend. smiling he couldn’t wipe the smirk off of his face throughout the entire battle. in the end kakashi won by one point, the pair walked back a little sweaty from their battle before sitting to join the group. kakashi helped iruka to sit back up against him.  
"that was a neat battle"  
kakashi smiled at him before ordering the next match to begin. asuma and genma made their way out to the field. iruka wondered who would win, asuma had the power of his trench blades which were a hand to hand weapon while genma had his senbon which he could launch from a safe distance away.   
the group watched as the battle started and senbon began to fly, asuma dodging and deflecting the tiny missiles. iruka was amazed at their speed, he knew he shouldn’t be surprised they were anbu after all, but it was hard to keep up with them. eventually iruka tired and leaned more heavily against kakashi who wrapped his arms around him in turn. the match ended a couple minutes later when both of them came walking back with a couple cuts on them but nothing more. with the match done they decided to eat lunch before the final match. kurenai brought out her scroll and with a little swipe of blood a basket appeared stuffed to the top with plenty of food. they handed out the food and dived in. iruka eating more slowly than the anbu around him.   
once lunch was cleaned up, the final match began. raidou vs genma. the two stood and made their way out the field.  
"ten dollars says genma fights dirty"  
iruka heard kakashi snort before saying 'your on'  
"what do you mean fight dirty?"  
asuma had a hard time explaining it, he wasn’t used to having someone not know what they were talking about. saving his blushing teammate kakashi whispered in iruka's ear. iruka's eyes widened.  
"you allow him to do that?"  
the others laughed before kurenai stated.  
"we don’t allow anything, he'd do it with or without our consent, so we just started going with the flow of things"  
iruka shook his head muttering about crazy jounin. kakashi laughed before stating he was now one of the crazy jounin.  
"hey im not crazy, i-i don’t try and seduce people while in the middle of a fight"  
kakashi nodded his head in a sarcastic manner which earned him a glare. turning back to the fight they were surprised to see that genma was doing everything in his power to persuade raidou to just give up. raidou wasn’t having any of it though and continued to attack his lover. iruka watched as raidou landed a powerful kick to genma's thigh iruka winced, but was amazed when genma didn’t fall to the ground instead he retaliated as if he hadn’t been hit at all.  
"that’s not fair, raidou handed me my ass and genma acts like nothing happened."  
kakashi chuckled before consoling the man.  
"trust me he felt the blow he just didn’t let it show. its something that irks raidou to no end."  
iruka caught on to genma’s little game, he was trying to make raidou feel less powerful than he was, while at the same time seducing him. genma was an evil evil man. the fight finally ended when raidou managed to get genma in a headlock, his legs wrapped around genma's so the man literally couldn’t do a thing. they heard genma say he gave in and as smile broke out on raidou’s face as genma muttered about stupid holds. rejoining the group iruka asked.  
"so now what, its still early"  
the group smiled to him before kurenai said  
" now we play a game"  
she pulled out another scroll and summoned a couple bottles of sake and oddly enough some tea.  
"i knew you coudln’t have sake yet so i brought tea for you"  
iruka nodded and thanked her. once the drinks were pulled out asuma explained the rules of the game. it was fairly simple the person said something that they had never done before but that they were sure the others had, if they had they must take a drink, if not then they waited for the next question. asuma went first.  
"lets see something easy for us to start with. never have i ever been poisoned"  
everyone groaned, including iruka as he took a drink of tea.  
"that’s a low blow i just got out of the hospital"  
asuma chuckled and motioned for kurenai to continue.  
"never have i ever slept with a woman"  
again the men groaned, except for iruka. that got him some odd looks, but he blushed and shook his head. next it was kakashi's turn.  
"never have i ever been caught stealing something"  
genma and raidou both groaned and took a drink. iruka laughed and asked.  
"what were you accomplices to each other?"  
they shook their heads before explaining that it was before they'd ever met one another. next kakashi motioned for iruka to think of something. smirking he said.  
"never have i ever been an anbu"  
the whole group groaned and shot him a dirty look while taking their drinks. it was kurenai who commented.  
"that was a good one"  
iruka nodded, raidou went next.  
"never have i ever taught children"  
everyone besides genma and raidou took a drink. next it was genma's turn and they all dreaded what he was going to say.  
"never have i ever gotten caught sleeping on the job"  
asuma, kakashi and iruka took a drink. asuma responded in kind.  
"never have i ever used a weapon as a toothpick"  
genma groaned but was joined in the task by raidou and kakashi. kurenai smiled at them all.  
"never have i ever bought flowers for a date"  
the men groaned and even iruka took a drink prompting asuma to chuckle and ask.  
"you gave mizuki flowers?"  
iruka smiled before saying.  
"trust me its a long story"  
the others laughed before moving on. kakashi took a minute to think about his before saying.  
" never have i ever dyed my hair"  
genma and raidou took a drink making iruka laugh. they frowned in unison at him.  
"ok never have i ever had a mission above c rank"  
the group groaned before raidou said.  
"you wont be able to say that for much longer"  
iruka nodded before saying.  
"but its still true right now so drink up"  
they did as ordered and genma said.  
"never have i ever lost any paperwork"  
kakashi groaned and drank, iruka turned to look at him and smiled. that was apparently a cheap shot. raidou went next.  
"never have i ever been accused of any crime above the fine level"  
iruka groaned the team smiled as he took a drink before saying.  
"you suck"  
genma quickly replied.  
"yes he does"  
iruka blanched at that before bursting out laughing, it was apparent that genma was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. raidou wrapped a hand around the mans shoulder and pulled him in close to whisper something to him. genma smiled. again being asuma's turn the nin said.  
"never have i ever dated a man"  
the men in question frowned at a smug looking asuma. kurenai smiled at her lover, it was a cheap shot but it worked.   
"never have i ever been caught naked in any situation outside of my home."  
surprisingly genma wasn’t the only one, kakashi also drank to it making iruka snicker. kakashi smiled down at him before saying.  
"never have i ever done a summons only to have it curse at me and refuse to do what i asked of it."  
genma and asuma took a drink along with iruka. iruka scowled at him before saying.  
"never have i ever watched an interrogation from beginning to end"  
the anbu all groaned before genma slurred out.  
"hey you were at one"  
"that was my own, that doesn’t count besides i lost consciousness a couple times so it really doesn’t count"  
genma frowned but nodded his consent before realizing it was his turn. smiling he stated.  
"never have i ever talked back to a hokage"  
iruka sighed before taking a drink, asuma and kakashi were right along side him though. and then it was raidou’s turn.  
"never have i ever allowed myself to get so drunk that i couldn’t make it home under my own power"  
the whole group drank to that one. it was after that drink that genma called out.  
"im done in"  
they smiled, out of all of them genma had the lowest tolerance for alcohol. iruka smiled at him before asking what they were going to do now.  
"now im going to drag his sorry ass back to the apartment and ravage him, i don’t much care what you guys do"  
iruka laughed as raidou got genma shakily to his feet and the pair disappeared in a puff of smoke. turning to the others iruka commented.  
"hope genma doesn’t throw up on him"  
they smiled before kakashi stated.  
"nah, raidou will make him process the alcohol out of his system first"  
looking up to the anbu he was confused, there was a way to speed up the process. kakashi smiled but didn’t reveal his technique.  
"well were gonna head home too"  
"bye"  
they nodded to iruka and kakashi before vanishing themselves. once they were alone iruka was surprised to find himself on his back with kakashi looming over him. smiling to the man iruka said.  
"your drunk"  
"pft hardly"  
iruka smiled at him and asked what was on their agenda then.   
"i like the ravaging idea, there's quite a few places i've yet to get kiss on you"  
as if to make his point he leaned down and started kiss iruka's neck, trailing downwards as he went. iruka laughed before tugging on the man's hair. kakashi raised his head to stare at him.  
"well mr ravager, i think we should go home to such things. i don’t care if this place is secure the last thing i need is other anbu seeing me in a compromising situation with you."  
kakashi pouted a bit before nodding. he made the hand signs and just like that they were suddenly on the living room floor, iruka laughed as he realized where they were and the fact that kakashi had gone right back to what he had been doing previously. sighing he let the man have his way, gently iruka reached down to tug off the offending mask blocking kakashi from him. kakashi didn’t even slow from what he was doing which appeared to be kissing every inch of iruka's body.  
"you better not vomit on me"  
he felt kakashi snicker against his neck. then he felt the nin's hands coming under his shirt, smiling he let kakashi do as he pleased, he didn’t have a problem with this activity, it was the more personal ones that were hard for him.   
"wouldn’t we be more comfortable on the bed"  
"mmm yeah, bed"  
iruka smiled as kakashi suddenly got up and pulled him to his feet he shook as he stood there, before being thrown over kakashi's shoulder, iruka laughed as he was carried down the hallway like that, his face inches away from kakashi's ass, he used his hands to hold onto his back to steady the swaying of his own body. once they entered the bedroom iruka was gently tossed to the bed. he bounced a little and smiled as kakashi started to crawl up his body. he enjoyed the view and waited for kakashi to get close enough to kiss. he could taste the sake on kakashi, but it didn’t bother him at all, unlike mizuki kakashi was in full control of himself. trailing his kisses down iruka's neck to his favorite spot on the junction between neck and shoulder he nipped and laved at the spot determined to make a mark on the tanned skin. iruka shifted uncomfortably underneath him. it felt so good. as if sensing what the man was thinking kakashi leaned his body down to let iruka feel his erection against his leg. iruka was shocked to find him fully hard. as kakashi continued to kiss him iruka couldn’t help but ask.  
"how? we haven’t done anything"  
"jutsu for the alcohol, side effect"  
he mumbled out each word as he continued to kiss the tan skin beneath his lips. iruka smiled, he would have to make sure he learned that jutsu too. instead he used his hands to tug on kakashi's clothing. the man got the hint and soon clothing was flying all across the room. retaking his place hovering over iruka he frowned at the sparse bandages covering the man.   
"its ok, it doesn’t hurt. their just there to keep the stitches clean and those come out soon"  
kakashi nodded, leaning down to kiss the man passionately he wanted to rid all the horrible memories iruka had, kakashi knew he couldn’t do that without erasing who iruka was, so he contented himself with replacing those memories with new ones. his free hand trailed down the man's form enjoying the little tenses here and there as iruka was sensitive to his touch. finally he reached where he wanted, the apex between the mans thighs, a semi hard member was found and it only took a couple strokes to get him fully hard. iruka was moaning as he felt kakashi playing with him. the pleasure was so good.  
"kakashi, mmmm "  
kakashi was quite pleased with himself to get iruka to vocalize what he was feeling. then he felt it, a warm hand coming to grasp his own aching member. he couldn’t hold back the groan as iruka started his own rhythm. they continued to play with one another while kissing off and on for what seemed like eternity. finally kakashi decided enough was enough. sitting back on his haunches, he was able to use his other arm to stop iruka's hand from continuing, iruka's eyes opened and he looked down at him in confusion. smiling at him kakashi scooted down the bed before replacing his hand on iruka's member with his mouth, in one steady move he had the entire thing in his mouth. iruka bucked screaming at the new sensation. kakashi smiled around the organ in his mouth and started running his tongue over the pulsing length. sucking the tip as he withdrew the member only to pull it back into his mouth. kakashi didn’t need to worry about iruka bucking too much, he was already tiring from the exertion and it took little effort from kakashi to hold him in place as he went about his business. kakashi continued to create a steady rhythm, of sucking on the tip, swirling his tongue around the length and the natural thrusting motion in and out of his mouth. he could feel iruka's legs trembling as his body was as taught as a wire, his body wasn’t going to last much longer. speeding up the tempo he was using, kakashi reached out with a hand and cupped the man's swollen balls, massaging them as he continued his work on the sensitive organ in his mouth, it was only two more strokes before iruka warned him.  
"gaaah kakashi don’t im-"  
the jounin ignored him and kept going sucking harder and harder until finally iruka screamed, his body bucking upwards instinctively before falling back to the bed as he rode out his orgasm. kakashi didn’t even bat an eye as he swallowed the man's cum and continued to suck gently on the deflating organ before letting it go completely. pulling away kakashi looked up to see iruka panting his eyes closed and mouth open. crawling up the man's body he kissed him gently to get his attention. iruka fought to catch his breath but managed to open his eyes.  
"that was-"  
kakashi smiled at him and spoke.  
"im guessing that’s your first time like that"  
iruka nodded, he didn’t need to tell kakashi that mizuki hadn’t been one for reciprocating pleasure. it was pretty much a moot subject at that point. once he had caught his breath. iruka got an idea. smiling at kakashi he gently pushed him to lie on his back. kakashi did as asked and was surprised when iruka mounted his hips. sitting upright, kakashi’s arms went around his hips to help hold him upright. smiling iruka went on with his plan. moving his hips back and forth with kakashi's still hard member trapped between his own and their hips. grinding along it creating a warm environment with just the right amount of friction. kakashi bucked a little, he hadn’t been expecting this, but it felt good. he cried out when he felt one of iruka's hands reach down to play with his hard organ. his body rubbing against him as he stroked it. up and down his hand went around the stiff member, it throbbing with each beat of the other mans pulse. iruka made sure to keep the movements just enough to cause kakashi to build up slowly towards his release. he saw the ninja gritting his teeth and could feel the tiny thrusts of the man's hips below him. iruka finally had mercy on him and started increasing the pace of his hand and hips that were rubbing and grinding along the hard length within his control. kakashi gasped at the onslaught of more pleasure so suddenly and groaned when a particular hard grinding stimulated his balls. using one of his hands kakashi tried to reach down to help iruka with his task, the copy ninja wanted release and was growing impatient, but instead he got a hand swatted away. kakashi brought his hand back up to iruka's hips which were slowly driving him mad. his balls tingling kakashi could feel the tightening of the sacks and knew he was going to come soon.   
"aaah iruka gonna cum"  
iruka smiled at the man and continued to torture the man's hard member, driving him to his peak. with a harsh grunt of pleasure kakashi came into iruka’s hand and over their stomachs and hips. kakashi fell boneless to the bed, iruka collapsing on top of him, the strain of staying upright so long making the man pant. when they started to get their breathing back under control iruka felt kakashi's hands come around to wrap him in his embrace. iruka snuggled into the man's neck and just breathed in his calming scent. if he was truthful with himself he would feel embarrassed by his forwardness in the bedroom, but kakashi had liked it so that made it not so bad. he could feel kakashi's hands rubbing his back and sides. iruka murmured contentedly at the sensation and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep like this, naked and on top of kakashi, but it was not to be. kakashi suddenly grasped his ass which startled iruka more than anything and then he was being held against the taller man as he walked to the bathroom. sighing iruka leaned against kakashi's shoulder and mumbled.  
"i was comfy"  
"im sure you were but you wouldn’t be in the morning"  
iruka nodded against the warm skin and started to kiss the man's collar bone, kakashi shuddered making iruka smile as he nipped at the flesh.  
"iruka"  
"hmm"  
"what are you doing?"  
"seducing you"  
kakashi laughed a little before replying.  
"i can tell that much, why are you seducing me"  
"cause i want to"  
kisses were brought against his flesh between each word and the copy nin just shook his head at the other jounin's actions before kneeling down to detach iruka from him while he got a hot bath ready for them. it was obvious that iruka wasn’t tired just yet and who was he to deny the man. iruka whined at the loss of contact but was pacified when kakashi told him he needed to get the water ready. once the tub was full of steamy water the jounin collected iruka back into his arms and climbed into the tub. sitting with iruka astride his hips. iruka was leaning heavily on his chest and so he brought his arms up to support him from behind as he put some space between them.  
"come on, we need to get clean"  
iruka smiled before shaking his head and darting forward to kiss kakashi. the shock of the kiss didn’t last long and soon iruka could feel kakashi responding in kind to his advances. he let his hands wander over the expanse of skin that was sitting astride him. iruka moaned into the kiss and broke away with a laugh when kakashi found a sensitive spot. kakashi smiled at him.  
"no fair"  
iruka pouted, kakashi was using his being ticklish to his advantage. kakashi shrugged before stating.  
"mah neither was torturing me for forever before finally letting me come"  
iruka blushed at the language but nodded. leaning against kakashi's shoulder he allowed himself to relax against the other man. he could feel kakashi reaching for some things and paid no mind to it, until he felt a cloth come down his back to clean him, sitting up iruka wasn’t surprised when the cloth was brought around to clean the evidence of their good time together. but groaned when kakashi touched his sensitive member, becoming half hard in his grasp. kakashi chuckled before allowing iruka to lean back against himself. he too was half hard but that was mostly from having the man sitting astride him then the effects of the cleaning himself. kakashi enjoyed the hot water for a while longer before managing to unplug the drain with his toes. the water slowly began draining and he was about to try and stand them up when he realized it was going to be harder than he thought. iruka was asleep. chuckling a little at his predicament, kakashi managed to grab a hold of iruka's backside and kept him flush against himself as he righted himself into getting to one knee before basically hoping up to stand. the jounin climbed out of the tub and put a towel on the counter before setting iruka's ass there while he started to dry them. he heard iruka groan a little when he dried off the mans privates and shook his head. the man was sensitive. once they were dry kakashi said fuck it and carried them to bed, they could sleep nude for a night. curling up in the bed he allowed iruka to stay half on top of him without being directly astride his hips. he sighed, he was quickly coming to understand his own feelings for the man in his arms. knowing he couldn’t say it while the man was awake, kakashi took the time now that he knew the man wouldn’t hear him to say.  
"i do too iruka"


	42. ration bar reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka goes for another check up and kakashi and his team are needed. being separated so soon after iruka's nearly fatal jouin exam, both are unsettled by the prospect of leaving iruka on his own while he's still healing. with nothing to be done about it, they prepare to spend a week separated from each other. their reunion however makes up for the wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter two of the day. starts off with some smexyness and ends with some smexyness. gotta love chapters like this one. there's fluff, action and everything in between. how lucky are you guys? real lucky. 
> 
> sadly tomorrow is our last day together. the last two chapters will be posted tomorrow afternoon and the story will finally be complete. please make sure to write some comments and let me know what you think about the story. its been a crazy ride from writing, editing and then posting this piece. i'm going to miss all of your lovely words of encouragement and i can only hope you guys will come back when i post more stories in this fandom. 
> 
> thanks for all the kudos, and comments and i'll see you tomorrow for our last two chapters.

kakashi woke the moment the sun came over the mountains, the light barely coming through the window in his bedroom. looking down he couldn’t believe that he was lucky enough to have iruka like this. he could feel the man's naked body along his own and couldn’t help but get hard at the thought of being with the man again. sure they hadn’t actually slept together, but he was a patient man and knew that iruka needed time after all he had been through with mizuki. willing his hard on to go away, he failed. sighing kakashi was about to use his stealth to sneak away to the bathroom to take care of his problem when iruka snuggled closer to him, his naked sex pushing against kakashi's leg. biting his tongue to stop from groaning kakashi sighed when iruka stopped moving. he was just starting to relax back into the bed when iruka's hand on his chest started to move more southward. he couldn’t see the smile on iruka's face, so he had no clue that the man already knew about kakashi's hard on. kakashi couldn’t hold back a groan when talented fingers came to wrap around his hardness.  
"gah"  
kakashi cried out, he couldn’t help but let out the noise when iruka's hand started to pump him.  
"iruka gah, how'd you-mmm would you stop that"  
the man giggled as he continued to assault the other man, making it harder and harder for kakashi to think. his hand stroking up and down, playing with the sensitive tip only to follow the pole down to his balls. kakashi didn’t know what kind of hell he was in, but he wanted it to last forever. he didn’t last very long with iruka's skill kakashi found himself cumming in no time, grunting and thrusting his hips into the man's firm grip. he sagged against the bed, his eye closed as he tried to collect himself. they opened again when iruka snuggled closer to him, a leg coming over his own hip. turning his head to the side to be able to look at the man who had moved to be eye to eye with him kakashi smiled.  
"that was a good way to wake up"  
iruka laughed before kissing the ninja, his eyes opened when he felt kakashi's hand come to wrap around his own semi hard member. pulling away he said.  
"you better not"  
kakashi pulled back his hand confused as to why iruka didn’t want him to continue. the jounin smiled at him before pointing behind him and saying.  
"we were supposed to be at hokage-samas office forty five minutes ago"  
his eye opened wide as kakashi twisted around to see that indeed they were running very late.  
"shit"  
kakashi dove out of the bed as iruka started laughing hysterically. the jounin raced to the bathroom to clean off the evidence of his pleasant awakening and ran back to throw on clothes as fast as he could while throwing iruka his. the man in the bed still couldn’t contain his laughter though and just laid there as kakashi ran about the room.  
"come on iruka, she's gonna kill me-stop laughing and get dressed"  
iruka continued to snicker as he put on his clothes. kakashi brought the wheelchair over for iruka to climb into, he was having less issues standing now, though he still became tired if he did so for a length of time. climbing into the chair iruka wasn’t surprised to have blinked only to find himself right outside the hokage's office. the anbu there jumped and had to put away a kunai when he saw who it was. sighing the anbu nodded to kakashi and muttered.  
"she's not in a good mood"  
kakashi nodded but entered when the anbu opened the door. wheeling iruka through the doorway to come to stand in front of the hokage's desk they weren’t surprised when they were ignored at first. finishing the document she had been working on she let her eyes fall on the two shinobi in her office.  
"you had better have a good reason for being late"  
iruka snickered which got her attention, the jounin pointed to kakashi and her gaze went to him. kakashi sighed. he should have figured iruka would throw him under the bus.  
"we slept in by accident"  
"try again"  
he sighed, he really didn’t want to have to say what they had been up too,but she wasn’t giving him much choice.  
"ok we were awake but still in bed"  
"alright and just why were you still in bed"  
"together"  
she looked at him skeptically before looking to iruka who was turning an interesting shade of red. turning her gaze back to kakashi she asked.  
"and how long has this been going on"  
"with all due respect hokage, that’s none of your business"  
she smiled before nodding, she'd let them keep it to themselves for now, she could always ask again later.  
"you don’t have a problem with this iruka?"  
the man in question raised his head up to look at the hokage, he knew what she was asking. smiling he reassured her.  
"no problem hokage-sama"  
nodding her head she ordered kakashi to wheel the ninja over to the couch so she could take a look at him. once he had helped iruka transition to the couch to lay down, the hokage pushed kakashi out of the way and lifted iruka's shirt out of the way to be able to look at the wounds still healing on his body. the stitches appeared to be ready to come out and after gathering the proper tools she removed them with no issues. using her healing chakra she analyzed the health of his internal organs and that of his muscle and bone structure. nodding her head she pulled her hands back and let iruka replace his shirt.  
"well you're healing up rather nicely, take it easy though. im sure you've noticed when your body starts getting tired from simple things. it will take a little time to build that strength back up, but having seen you walk a little it shouldn’t be much longer and you'll be ready to take missions and return to your desk job in interrogations"  
iruka smiled at that, he was so happy to know that he wasn’t going to be stuck like this for much longer. he hated having to depend on kakashi for simple things like walking to the bathroom.  
"you can stop taking the pain killers, if you've actually been doing so, but i'd like you to keep taking the anti inflammatory until the bottle is empty."  
"of course"  
she smiled at him before standing back up and walking around to her desk. she waited until iruka was back in the wheelchair to tell kakashi.  
"your team is needed, you'll be leaving in two days"  
kakashi was rather stunned at that, sure iruka was getting better,but there was no way he could take care of himself just yet. kakashi was about to argue with her when she raised a hand to stop him. falling silent he waited.  
"i understand your concern for him, but there are going to be times when you two cant take care of one another. i'll make sure to have someone check in on him from time to time, but he has more than enough strength to use the wheelchair to get around."  
kakashi frowned, he didn’t like it one bit. it was iruka who asked.  
"how long is their mission?"  
the hokage smiled before shaking her head.  
"i cant give you details iruka"  
the man nodded, he knew it had been a long shot to actually find anything out about the mission. turning around in the wheelchair iruka took kakashi's hand to bring him out of whatever world he was in. the jounin had zoned out a couple minutes ago, when he felt the warm hand grasping his own kakashi glanced down to iruka.  
"it'll be fine, besides im sure the hokage will make sure nothing happens to me. you probably wont be gone long anyways"  
the hokage watched as the two interacted, they were good for each other. it had been a long time since kakashi had shown an interest in another.   
kakashi squeezed iruka's hand before facing the hokage.  
"who are you going to have checking in on him?"  
"whoever is available at the time"  
kakashi scowled at that, he didn’t like that iruka wouldn’t know who was going to show up until they did so. seeing the look on kakashi’s face the hokage sighed.  
"kakashi they will be sworn shinobi of the village. no one is going to hurt him"  
"the council did"  
she sighed, she should have figured that he would bring that up.  
"yes they did, but now they cant. they wouldn’t dare make another move when they know im watching them so closely."  
that helped a little in kakashi's mind. it was true that the council would have to be dumber than a post to try and attack when being watched so closely.  
"alright, fine. give me the scroll and i'll make sure my team and i are ready to go"  
the hokage smiled at that and threw him a tightly bound scroll. pocketing the item, kakashi nodded to the hokage before turning to wheel iruka out of the room. once the door was behind him kakashi was able to breath again. he didn’t like the fact that his team and him would be gone for any length of time while iruka was stuck at his apartment. holding onto the wheelchair and iruka they vanished only to reappear in the living room. he would have a lot to think about.

*************

iruka waited for kakashi to say something as he was moving about the apartment but the nin stayed quiet as he went about a couple tasks. putting things away, moving a couple pieces of furniture to make sure the wheelchair could get through without any trouble.  
"kakashi"  
he continued going around the apartment, picking up things that might be a hindrance to the wheelchair or iruka if he was trying to walk.  
"kakashi"  
turning his head to look at iruka he saw the man had his arms folded over his chest.  
"would you stop for a second. everything is going to be fine."  
kakashi frowned as he stepped up to the wheelchair, kneeling before it and iruka. kakashi grabbed one of iruka's hands in his own before speaking.  
"i don’t like leaving you alone like this"  
iruka smiled and used his other hand to cup the mans cheek  
"it cant be helped. the village needs you. besides its not like im going to be doing anything strenuous. i'll be laying about probably reading."  
kakashi nodded, it still didn’t make him be at ease. he felt like he was abandoning the man when he needed him the most. iruka just sighed at him before stating.  
"why don’t you go tell your team and i will prove i can manage on my own for a couple minutes"  
kakashi smiled, he did need to let them know about the mission. standing he nodded and was about to jutsu away when he stopped himself long enough to say.  
"stay"  
and then he was gone. iruka snorted before reaching down to move the chair around the wall and down the hallway. he'd prove to kakashi that he didn’t need a babysitter.

********

kakashi summoned his team with the use of their anbu tattoo, they gathered in the training ground.  
"where's iruka?"  
"at home. we have a mission"  
that shocked his teammates to no end. it was raidou who asked.  
"who's going to help iruka while were gone?"  
kakashi grimaced a little before saying.  
"the hokage is going to have whoever is available at the time come by and check on him"  
the others glanced to each other, even they didn’t like the sound of that.  
"so it could be anybody just coming over to help him and he wont have a heads up about it?"  
genma asked curiously. kakashi nodded.  
"well that’s stupid"  
genma continued, raidou put his hand on genma's shoulder silently telling him to quiet down.  
"whats the mission?"  
kurenai asked, if they were lucky it wouldn’t be too far away from the village and they could get it done before the deadline so as to get back to the village sooner. kakashi unrolled the scroll and passed it to asuma to read. kakashi leaned against a tree listening as asuma read the details of their mission.  
' assassinate three of the five key players of a group named tanji, they are aligning with wave and are a threat. the two other members are believed to be undercover from other villages, they cannot be harmed. once the assassination is carried out make sure that the courier that is being sent down the mountain pass is intercepted, their scrolls taken and returned to konoha.'  
"so we got two things to do, we can split up and get it done sooner or stick together to make sure there are no issues"  
the group nodded and waited to hear what kakashi thought about it.  
"we stick together, as much as i'd like to get back asap, we need to make sure that nothing puts a kink in things. we cant afford for those three to live and warn wave of our interception of their information."  
the group nodded as a single entity.  
"we leave in two days. be ready at dawn"  
and with that kakashi disappeared in a flash of smoke. 

*********************

returning to the apartment kakashi groaned when he realized that iruka was not where he had left him. walking into the kitchen yielded nothing, backtracking he went down the hallway and checked the study, nothing was out of place. he went further to check iruka's old bedroom, again nothing. turning around found his own bedroom empty. that left only one place for the chunin to be hiding. sighing he went to the bathroom door it was normally closed so he often disregarded it, but with iruka missing the closed door meant that there was a good chance of iruka being inside. kakashi raised his hand and knocked.  
"iruka?"  
there was no reply. gritting his teeth kakashi knocked again, there still wasn’t a reply. reaching forward he tried the handle and was relieved when it turned in his grasp. opening the door just enough to fit his head in, he poked his head in. his eyes widened.  
iruka was inside alright, but he was stuck. he'd tried to get in the bathtub for a nice soak by himself and his legs had given out on him. the strain of holding him up for too long being too much for the weak muscles. he proceeded to fall to the ground and hit not only the side of the tub and the toilet but get himself wedged between the two and be unable to get himself up at the odd angle. iruka was starring at his feet when kakashi entered.  
pushing the door as far as it would go, kakashi had to maneuver around the wheelchair and collapse it down to be able to have enough room for the both of them. moving the chair out into the hallway he returned to kneel beside the half naked man.  
"what happened?"  
"legs gave out"  
kakashi looked down at the man's legs before nodding his head.  
"you alright?"  
"im not hurt physically, but i'll admit this is embarrassing"  
kakashi smiled, relieved that the man hadn’t hurt himself in the fall.  
"ah well luckily that can be fixed with a nice cup of tea"  
iruka nodded before finally making eye contact with kakashi.  
"how was your meeting?"  
"standard, they were shocked to find out we were leaving so soon."  
iruka smiled at him before reaching out to loop his arms around kakashi's neck pulling him forward for a kiss, the mask still in the way. pulling back iruka stated.  
"so long as you all come back, everything will be fine. maybe by then i'll have mastered this technique called walking"  
kakashi snorted at that, before reaching up to pull his mask out of the way. he leaned forward for another kiss before helping to get iruka up on his feet. he could feel iruka's legs trembling at the strain. thinking fast kakashi doubled over his body and picked iruka up at the waist slinging him over his shoulder.  
"hey, what do you think your doing?"  
"mah im helping"  
being careful in how he maneuvered kakashi soon was able to exit the bathroom and walk down the hallway, passing the folded wheelchair to bring iruka to his favorite chair in the living room. carefully righting iruka he helped him down into the chair. smiling to him once he was seated in his own chair. iruka had a slight scowl to his face at being carried that way, but it didn’t stay long. soon they were conversing with one another and falling back into a normal routine for themselves. they talked for hours on end, never moving except when kakashi got up to bring them tea as promised.  
"so im guessing that little stunt was for a bath"  
"it wasn’t a stunt, i almost made it"  
kakashi raised a brow at that, iruka frowned at him.  
"well i did, if my legs hadn’t of folded when they did i would have been fine"  
kakashi made some noncomital noise in his throat that clearly portrayed how he felt about the situation.   
"remind me to ask genma for embarrassing stories about you"  
"he wouldn’t dare"  
"oh i could convince him, im sure of that"  
kakashi raised a brow at that before iruka said two words  
"snake food"  
kakashi laughed before commenting.  
"i don’t think raidou would appreciate you giving genma nightmares about being eaten alive"  
iruka shrugged before saying.  
"you have your torture methods i have mine"  
kakashi winced at that, he should have known that iruka couldn’t just forget what they'd done to him, he was about to apologize when iruka spoke again.  
"you know i don’t blame you guys right?"  
looking into the man's hazel eyes he saw the truth in that statement.  
"i know you were just doing as ordered, besides you didn’t even know me then. not really anyways. and you had to be sure i wasn’t a threat."  
kakashi nodded, but it didn’t take the hollow pain in his chest away. smiling at iruka he changed the subject.  
"so you think you'll read while we're away huh?"  
iruka nodded.   
"you know i have the complete collection of icha icha in the library-"  
"continue that sentence and you'll find them missing upon your return"  
kakashi chuckled but nodded his head in defeat. he let them fall into silence for a couple of minutes before speaking again.  
"your realize that when i come back from my mission im going to seclude you away in the bedroom"  
iruka snorted at him before nodding his head.  
"whatever gets you to come home in one piece"  
kakashi was quite thrilled to know that iruka didn’t have a problem with that plan.  
"besides after having strangers coming to help me around here i will be begging for your shenanigans"  
kakashi chuckled at that, he knew iruka was a private man, to have strangers coming to take care of him didn’t sit with him any better than it did kakashi.  
"im sure you'll manage and it should only be for a little while if all things go according to plan"  
"and how often does that happen?"  
"never"  
iruka laughed before shaking his head at the copy ninja.  
"well that’s good to know. so i can expect you to be late"  
"mah anbu missions don’t have deadlines"  
iruka tilted his head at that before stating.  
"really, so you guys could just wander to the beach for a week or two then go ahead with your mission and still get paid?"  
kakashi shook his head.  
"no by then ibiki himself would be coming to tear my balls off for delaying the mission."  
iruka winced before snorting at him. it was certainly something he could see ibiki doing. kakashi smiled at his reaction.  
"besides we get a bonus if we get it done sooner"  
iruka smiled, ah the pay scale, he remembered all the paperwork in the mission room and how he was shocked by what some of the jounin's made per mission, he couldn’t imagine what anbu got for their time. the rest of the day and night went pretty normal for the two of them, they ate together and then kakashi was nice enough to help iruka into a bath, before leaving him to enjoy it for a while. once he was ready to get out iruka called for kakashi and was once again helped out of the bathtub and assisted in drying himself and putting on some lounge pants. from there they retired to the bedroom for the night, no sexual activities took place, they just snuggled up to one another and relished in each others comforting embrace. after all they would have to do without each other for a little while in a couple days and they both didn’t know just how it would effect them.

**************

the day of their departure, kakashi took a shower, dawned his gear and leaned over to kiss iruka before heading out the door. he met up with his team and they were off to perform their mission. leaving iruka to fend for himself for a few days.  
iruka blinked a couple times when he realized who was standing in front of him at the doorway. his caregiver for the day was izumo of all people. sighing he motioned for the chunin to come in.  
"this is hatake's place huh?"  
the man looked around a bit which for some reason miffed iruka to no end. sighing iruka nodded his head before replying.  
"yes its kakashi's place."  
"why don’t you have your own place already? almost all of the buildings have been renovated."  
gritting his teeth to not yell at the nosy man iruka stated.  
"i like it here, kakashi doesn’t mind having me as a roommate so it works out for the both of us."  
"seems odd to me, two single guys just bunking together when their not on a mission"  
iruka was praying for the day to end as the endless amounts of questions continued to poor out of izumo's mouth as he helped with various chores around the house. finally it was time for the chunin to go and iruka couldn’t be more thrilled to have some alone time. it was as the nin was putting his sandals back on that he commented.  
"you know some people are saying you are shacking up with hatake"  
gritting his teeth for the hundredth time that day iruka smiled and said.  
"people like to talk in a ninja village. look at all the things that come through the mission desk"  
izumo nodded his head, it was true most of the juicy gossip started or ended in the mission room. having distracted the man iruka was able to get him out the door and shut and lock it before izumo could ask even one more question. sighing iruka leaned back in the wheelchair. gods that had been a horrible day.

**************

they had already taken down the courier, though genma was complaining about a sore wrist from where the guy had fought back. they ignored him for the most part,mostly because they were used to genma and two because raidou had already examined it and found it to be fine.   
"alright onto the dirty work, asuma your in charge of the scrolls until we get back to konoha so hang back with genma and be our backup when we enter the house"  
the man nodded and made sure that the precious scrolls were tucked safely in one of his hidden pouches. they entered silently and efficiently, kurenai creating a lifelike illusion to trick the guards allowing them to walk right around them. once they had entered the first bedroom raidou slit the man's throat and they were moving onto the next. the same procedure was repeated, this time kakashi taking a knife to the man's jugular. moving to the last one they stilled instantly when they saw the man sitting upright, a small lamp in hand.  
"i figured you'd come-i'll not go quietly"  
the man yelled out and ninja began to pour into the room, cursing the three anbu fought against their assailants, watching as the third target darted out of the room while they were distracted. they overcame the number of guards and were darting around the house in search of the last man when they saw asuma sending a hand signal to them from down the hallway. running to meet him kakashi called out.  
"what are you doing in here, you were supposed to stay put"  
"we heard the noise, genma's trailing the last guy, come on we should catch up and get the hell out of here"  
they nodded and although it took a little longer than they would have liked, they found genma, blood on his armor rounding a corner. raidou stepped up to make sure his lover was alright, but genma held up a hand.  
"im fine, its not mine"  
raidou relaxed, kakashi verified with genma that the third target had been silenced and they were darting back into the forest surrounding the place. headed for home.

*********

it had been five days and in that time iruka had been driven nuts, he was sure that he could now be certified as insane. after all he had been put through with his so called ‘guardians’ iruka had resulted to driving the men away. he had managed to booby trap the door to make his guardians turn around and leave him the hell alone after day two. all that had resulted from that stunt was a visit from an anbu stating that the hokage was not amused and that if he got hurt because of his little stunt he would have to explain it to kakashi. iruka nodded to the anbu and the man was gone. aaaah blissful silence. his body had grown stronger over the last week, iruka no longer had to use the wheelchair at all. his legs still grew tired, but they didn’t collapse on him so it was good proof that he was healing.   
he was in the middle of going through some scrolls that kakashi had collected over the years, sorting them by importance before placing them back in slots in the bookcase inside the library when he heard the noise of footsteps. turning towards the door he smiled when he saw the wolf mask staring at him.  
"your home!"  
iruka nearly knocked kakashi over as he ran to tackle the man against the wall.  
"your walking"  
pulling away a little iruka nodded.  
"yeah, my body's pretty much back to normal now."  
kakashi smiled beneath his mask before realizing that iruka couldn’t see what he was doing because of the offending object. reaching up he unlatched the mask before allowing it to drop to the ground. once it was off he wrapped his arms around iruka pushing the younger man up against his battle worn armor. iruka didn’t seem to mind at all, his head laying over the armor in a similar fashion of when he was sleeping.  
"i missed you"  
"i missed you too, gods you should have seen who the hokage sent to watch over me, oh that reminds me i need to un-trap the front door"  
"un-trap?"  
iruka nodded pulling away to drag the anbu along with him, sure enough kakashi could see a couple different wires attached around the door handle.  
"and what does that do?"  
"a really nasty shock when someone tried to touch it"  
kakashi smiled, wrapping his arms around iruka as the man finished pulling the last of the wires loose. once he was done iruka turned in kakashi's embrace and tugged on the black mask he was wearing before getting a real kiss from the man. it wasn’t long before the kiss was getting more and more passionate, their tongues doing battle as they pulled one another closer to each other, their hands grasping at each others skulls to push their faces hard against one another for more access. kakashi pushed iruka up against the front door and used it as support for them as his hands started to wander the man in front of him. he could feel iruka tugging on his own clothing, the heavy armor inhibiting iruka from actually touching him. smiling into the kiss kakashi broke them apart. iruka frowned.  
"how do you get this damn thing off?"  
kakashi laughed before stilling iruka's wandering hands. the jounin was no where near where the latches were actually hidden, pulling the fingers along the edge of the seam he showed iruka where the little hitch in the armor was. kakashi helped the man unlatch the first one before letting iruka take it from there.  
"i know its for your protection and everything, but damn is this stuff annoying"  
"you have no idea"  
kakashi replied as he pulled iruka's shirt over his head, momentarily stopping iruka from continuing to unlatch the armor plating. once he was bare chested he allowed iruka to do as he pleased. finally the last latch came loose and iruka was able to pull the armor plating away, splitting the seam and bringing both sides of the armor to land on the floor in a heavy thump. proud of himself iruka nodded before looking to the rest of the armor plates covering kakashi. he groaned.   
"mah its not so bad, how about this, you work on your clothing and since im an expert on this stuff i'll get these meddlesome pieces of armor off ne?"  
iruka nodded, before grabbing kakashi's hand and dragging him down the hallway to the bedroom. leaving a trail of armor as kakashi used one hand to undo all the armor he could reach on himself without having to jump on one leg to follow the man in front of him. turning back around iruka raised a brow to see that kakashi's had managed to get some of the gear off while they had walked down the hallway. snorting iruka started to undo his own pants, leaving kakashi to get the rest of his armor and clothing off in the mean time. once they were both in only their underwear they climbed into bed together, now free to touch one another they took the opportunity to caress each other, kissing gently as they explored one another’s bodies. kakashi smiled and let out a little huff of a laugh when he found their positions suddenly reversed with iruka straddling his hips.  
"see i pay attention to what raidou shows me"  
kakashi nodded his head, silently thinking about how he would have to thank the man for showing iruka that move. it was no secret between the two of them that they were both growing quite aroused with their display's of affection towards one another. the tenting in each other's underwear showing quite clearly to each other just how happy they were to see one another again. leaning down iruka kissed kakashi gently before pulling just a few inches away.  
"im going to show you just how much i missed you while you were away"  
curiosity piqued kakashi was about to ask how much iruka had missed him while they had been away, however that all changed when iruka slowly slide himself down kakashi's body until he was able to pull kakashi's boxers down with his teeth, allowing the man's hard erection to spring free from the confines of the dark cloth. kakashi put his arms behind his head, he was prepared to enjoy the show for as long as iruka was willing to put one on for him.   
once the offending clothing was out of the way, iruka did something kakashi wasn’t entirely prepared for. one minute iruka was stroking him gently and the next he found himself firmly surrounded by a warm wetness of iruka's mouth. iruka having taken his entire length into himself. kakashi couldn’t hold back the cry of shock and pleasure as his member was sucked on. he tried not to buck his hips knowing that iruka wouldn’t be prepared for that, but it was testing all of his limits not to do so. it felt just to damn good. he tried to bring fresh air to his body as he fought his instincts to thrust into the warmth surrounding him. kakashi didn’t know what iruka was planning to do, but he didn’t want to scare him by his own reactions.   
iruka took his time, he was new to this type of sexual exploits, sure he'd experienced it before with kakashi and he could idly remember mizuiki forcing him to do it to him a couple times, but this was different, iruka wouldn’t allow his mind to go down that dark road. this was kakashi. he was careful in his ministrations, allowing enough room between his teeth and the sensitive organ as he sucked, drawing the hardness deeper into his throat. kakashi was obviously fighting the temptation to buck, iruka was silently grateful that the nin had that much control over himself. withdrawing some of the length from his mouth iruka focused on the tip of the organ, swirling his tongue around it while sucking. this got a distinct whine from kakashi that iruka hadn’t been expecting, so far kakashi had been rather silent in all of their endeavors. so to hear this type of keening was rather unusual. smiling around the organ, he dove down to retake the whole thing into his mouth and throat, kakashi couldn’t hold back this time and let out a solid grunt as his hips thrust upwards, iruka adapted to the sudden movement, allowing his hands which were splayed on the mans thighs to caress the quivering muscles he found there. silently telling him to relax. it took a moment but kakashi sank back down into the soft bedding beneath them, once again allowing iruka to take control of the situation. though it didn’t last long.  
once he was sure that kakashi was again under control,iruka followed through with the rest of his plan he'd cooked up. sucking on the turgid organ he swirled his tongue around the underside and began to hum, the vibration had an instantaneous reaction. kakashi's hips bucked upwards, his hands clenched the sheets as kakashi groaned.  
"iru-iruka aaaah, don’t-im im gonna -"  
iruka smiled, but refused to allow kakashi to stop him from his task at hand. he knew that he wasn’t really sure of himself when it came to this forward behavior in bed, but he was willing to give anything a try so long as it was kakashi who was going to be there beside him. allowing kakashi to thrust his hips up again, iruka made one last solid effort to throw the man over the edge, he deepened the vibrations from his humming and slid a hand down the man's thighs to gently caress the very base of the mans organ, kakashi's grunt changed into the keening sound again. a couple more solid thrusts onto the organ and kakashi couldn’t hold back any longer. with a keening shout he came. iruka did his best to swallow all that the man gave up, but he was rather inexperienced in this and found he couldn’t quite keep up with the man's thrusting hips and jerking motions that moved the organ about. with a solid popping sound iruka released the still ejaculating organ, two more expressions of cum were released, while iruka laid his head on the man's stomach, he could feel the warmth on his chest, but paid it no mind. his attention was solely on kakashi.  
the silver haired nin was panting, his muscles quivering in exertion from the long drawn out session. his eye's closed as his mouth was open just the slightest to allow him to bring in new air. iruka smiled, he was rather proud of himself for some reason, it might be because he had actually managed to pull off his plan of pleasuring the man, or the fact that kakashi had allowed him too. either way iruka was content to just stare at the man he was laying on top of. it took a couple more minutes before kakashi came around, his breathing slowing down as his brain finally registered that his orgasm was over and that his blood could now circulate to other area's of his body. inhaling deeply his mind clicked on in a sudden snap. iruka. he wasn’t sure how iruka was, opening both eyes, he blinked and looked down where he could feel the added weight of the man, sure enough the tan skinned man was just smiling at him. smiling back kakashi couldn’t hold back reaching down and pulling iruka up towards him more, iruka climbed the length of his body to come and straddle his hips once more and leaned down to kiss him. kakashi wrapped his arms around the jounin and delved deeply into the mans awaiting mouth. iruka groaned as he felt the man's affection for him, the hands on the back of his head that were delving into his hair, gently pulling him down to keep him against their owner. smiling they broke apart. iruka blushed a bit before saying.  
"i might have missed your company-just a bit"  
kakashi laughed, wrapping his arms around the nin's back he nodded.  
"of course, just a bit"  
iruka smiled down at him before finally bringing up the courage to ask something he wouldn’t normally have the guts to ask.  
"did you en-mph"  
iruka didn’t get to finish his sentence before, he was being kissed quite passionately and rolled over, this time leaving kakashi on top of the smaller man. kakashi held his chest off of the man with his weight resting on his elbows as he kissed iruka with fervor. with their positions reversed he intended to pay the man back for his display of affection. breaking apart iruka sighed, a smile gracing his face.  
"im guessing everyone's ok?"  
"no one got hurt"  
"good"  
nodding his head kakashi leaned down for a peck of a kiss before pulling away again.  
"so what did you do while i was away?"  
"booby trapped your apartment to keep out unwanted guests, the hokage sent another anbu to let me know she wasn’t amused and that if i got myself hurt i had to explain it to you"  
kakashi snorted before leaning down to let his face lie between the man's neck and shoulders. inhaling deeply the musky scent of iruka that he had missed while he was away on his mission. iruka's arms came to wrap around his back.  
"do you get some time off now?"  
"probably not, but i'll see about it"  
kakashi could feel iruka nod, they both understood the risks of their jobs, especially with kakashi being an anbu captain. but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t take all the time they had to be with each other. pulling back kakashi kissed him slowly before asking.  
"i didn’t ask, but was that hard for you- i mean-uh"  
iruka smiled at him before shaking his head.  
"no, im fine. its different when im with you, there's no pain."  
kakashi smiled and nodded, leaning down to kiss him again before saying.  
" i cant promise there wont be pain in the future, but i'll be damned if i don’t try and prevent it"  
iruka laughed leaning up to kiss kakashi's nose.  
"my valiant knight in horribly placed armor"  
kakashi laughed before commenting.  
"its not so bad, i'd like to see you try it on someday though."  
iruka blushed before shaking his head.  
"are you nuts, your like a foot taller than me, not to mention i have no clue how to actually clasp the damn things shut."  
"mah it would just be the two of us, and i could help you if you get stumped. i bet you could figure it out though and i think it would be sexy"  
iruka had a full on blush now and nuzzled his head into kakashi's neck before muttering.  
"genma would say that’s kinky and for once i think he's right"  
iruka could feel the chuckle from the other man above him and took the time to relish in it. snuggled up to the man he was quickly finding himself falling in love with, iruka enjoyed the quiet moment together. it wasn’t long before kakashi interrupted the silence.   
" you know i have yet to show you how much i missed you..."  
looking up into the mismatched eyes, iruka blushed before saying.  
"aren’t you hungry?"  
kakashi smiled before trailing himself down the jounin's body.  
" i mean it, those ration bars are oh OH"


	43. one week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the aftermath of kakashi and iruka's reunion. iruka gets to watch the anbu train once more. kakashi and iruka have to face the realities of what being a shinobi means for their relationship. iruka has to face the reality of what is being asked of him by the hokage. iruka and kakashi begrudgingly part ways while iruka fulfills his duties as a shinobi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last first chapter of the day. what a mouth full. lol. so this is it folks, the last time i get to say the first chapter of the day. there's only one left after this baby and i can only hope that you guys enjoy the last bit of it. 
> 
> the second chapter, the final chapter will be up in a few minutes.
> 
> let me know what you guys think of the chapter and of the story.

" how did my socks end up over here?"  
"i have good aim?"  
"pft, you weren’t aiming for anything"  
"true but i still have good aim"  
iruka chuckled as he helped kakashi clean up all the errant clothing from before their little rondevue in bed. now that they were at least partially dressed in lounge pants, they were moving around the apartment to clean up the place before making some long overdue food. once they had managed to find all the errant pieces of clothing and armor in kakashi's case, they headed for the kitchen. only stopping long enough for kakashi to laugh as iruka disabled another trap on the balcony door.  
"you and your traps"  
"hey they sent izumo to look after me"  
kakashi winced, he knew how disjointed iruka had felt with his fellow chunin, and now that he was their senior, he could only imagine.  
"you could have always ordered him away?"  
"i didn’t tell him i was jounin now"  
"why not?"  
iruka shrugged before idly commenting.  
" i think mostly because it hasn’t sunk in yet, i still feel like me"  
"are you supposed to feel different?"  
iruka shook his head.  
"i don’t know, i thought so-don’t you feel different being anbu and all?"  
kakashi thought about it a moment before shaking his head. iruka frowned.  
"hmm well then i have no clue, other than maybe i instinctively knew there would be way too many damn questions if i told him."  
kakashi conceded to that point. he knew how nosy that particular chunin could be, he couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for his...iruka?  
"iruka?"  
"hmm"  
"what are we?"  
turning around to face the anbu, iruka tilted his head at kakashi.  
"what are we? what do you mean"  
"i mean, what are we-to each other. are we dating?"  
a smile blossomed onto iruka's face which made kakashi relax at having asked a subject that could have sent iruka running to the hills. instead the jounin in questions walked over and wrapped his arms around the silver haired man, kakashi did the same to him.  
"you and me are us"  
kakashi smiled.  
"us, i like that."  
iruka laid his head on kakashi's chest before saying.  
"if you want to be something else, just let me know."  
"i was just curious, i don’t want to pressure you into anything"  
"your not, i wouldn’t be here if i didn’t think i could handle it and that i wasn’t safe. im safe with you and i can handle this"  
kakashi laid his head down on top of iruka's.  
"im glad"  
the rest of the day went by rather smoothly, they made a feast to celebrate their reunion and spent the majority of the day talking and lounging around the apartment. it wasn’t until around five o clock that they were rather suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door. iruka snorted about leaving booby traps up. kakashi waved him off as he got up from his chair and reached the door. opening it found a typical courier for the hokage.  
"ano, umino iruka?"  
kakashi nodded.  
"iruka its for you"  
nodding to the courier kakashi spun around and headed back to his own spot while iruka dealt with the man at the door. he could hear a little conversation before iruka thanked the man and the door was shut. coming back into the room, iruka held an envelope and a scroll.  
"whats all that about?"  
"i have no idea, lets find out ne"  
opening the envelope found a typical message from the mission appointment office, a signature at the bottom of the hokage showing that it was official and that she had sanctioned the mission. looking to the blue scroll in his hand iruka sighed before saying.  
"i have a mission apparently?"  
kakashi put his book down, now more alert. he nodded to iruka and watched as the man undid the wax seal and began to read. kakashi waited to see what it was about.  
iruka broke the wax seal on the scroll and unraveled it to where the writing began stating the mission details.   
mission objective: retrieval, assassination  
mission operatives: umino iruka, ginto karahsi, jui naero

mission details: your team is to target a small outpost west of the cliffs of manes mountain peak. there you will find a small village where it is believed that a small group of missing nin are hiding out. they have taken a precious book of the fire daimyo’s daughter, she would like it returned undamaged. you are to eradicate all traces of these missing nin who have begun to take up residence in this small village inside the boundaries of fire country.  
mission timeline: one week  
iruka took a deep breath, his first mission as a jounin and he was doing an assassination of more than one person? the retrieval he could handle, but he was actually going to have to fight these missing nin and they weren’t allowed to get away.   
by now kakashi was getting nervous and wondering what the hell the damn scroll said to make iruka freeze the way he was.  
"iruka?"  
jumping when he felt the hand on his wrist iruka came back to reality, smiling to kakashi he sighed and re-rolled the scroll.   
"i have my first mission"  
kakashi nodded his head and waited for more information.  
"i wont be going alone though, two men i've never met will be tagging along"  
kakashi again nodded, but continued to wait, something wasn’t right here he was sure of it.   
"iruka-whats the mission?"  
the jounin looked up to him before tilting his head.  
"am i allowed to tell you about it? i i mean it doesn’t say if its classified or not"  
kakashi smiled at him and shook his head at iruka.  
"if it was classified it would have a stamp on it"  
"oh,ok. um we have to go to a small town and retrieve a book that was stolen by missing nin's its apparently very valuable as it belongs to the fire daimyo's daughter. we-the missing nin's are not allowed to escape"  
kakashi listened intently to what iruka had to say, he understood. assassination.  
"iruka-"  
"its ok, i wont be alone, the other two are probably seasoned jounin by now and will take the lead, i can steal the book back easily enough"  
iruka smiled with a little bit of confidence. kakashi smiled too.  
"they wont see it coming"  
iruka smiled and shook his head. kakashi wrapped his arms around iruka and held him.  
"you don’t have to do the assassination, you can tell-"  
"no, if it comes down to it i'll make sure the mission is a success."  
he felt kakashi nod against his head and smiled. iruka was bound and determined not to fail this time, he'd bring both his teammates home alive and well, the book intact and leave the missing nin's dead. pulling away iruka spoke up.  
"when i get back we need to go have drinks to celebrate."  
kakashi smiled.  
"im sure that can be arranged, i still owe you for your exam."  
iruka nodded and poked kakashi in the chest.  
"and don’t you forget it"  
kakashi held up his hands in surrender.  
"i promise, i wont forget"  
iruka chuckled and came forward to embrace kakashi again. wrapped up in each others arms it was kakashi who spoke the needed question.  
"when do you leave and how long"  
"a day, and a week"  
kakashi sighed,it wasn’t much time for their reunion, but time waits on no man. kakashi should be relieved that they weren’t sending iruka's team out towards wave. he wouldn’t have been able to handle that. this was a good starting mission it would let iruka know if he wanted to be on active mission duty or continue in interrogations. smiling to himself kakashi nodded his head and said.  
"what do you want to do tomorrow then, since its your last day before you get a taste of mission life again?"  
iruka pondered for a second before asking.  
"can i watch you guys train again?"  
"you sure you want to waist your last day off for a week watching some old fogeys fight each other"  
iruka chuckled mumbling 'your not old'  
"yes i think i would"  
"alright then, your wish is my command. i'll call em up and tell them the plan. they'll want to know about your mission anyhow."  
the rest of the night they spend curled up on the couch together, kakashi with his arm around iruka's shoulders as they both enjoyed the closeness as they read from different books.

***********

coming through the barrier, iruka inhaled deeply, the smell of the grass, of the forest making him feel right at home. taking kakashi's now free hand, they walked over to the group who were smiling at them. sitting down kakashi nodded to iruka.  
"i got a mission"  
the group broke out in celebration making iruka laugh. finally once they had all calmed themselves down enough kurenai asked for details.  
"im going with two others, haven’t met them yet. we have to go to a small village past the mountains, there’s some missing nin's who stole a rare book, gotta steal the book and kill the nins before coming back"  
the group were still smiling but even iruka knew they had doubts about the mission just as he and kakashi had had.   
"its ok guys, i can do the stealing part easily enough, i just hope that the other two are better at the assassination side of things."  
kurenai nodded a sorrowful smile on her face, asuma wrapped his arm around her and asked.  
"when do you go?"  
"tomorrow, so no beating on me today, i just came to watch."  
asuma chuckled at the jounin and nodded.  
"and my deal still stands, i will pay you to knock raidou on his ass"  
raidou shook his head before stating.  
"next time we train, your mine"  
iruka snickered before saying   
"kakashi will protect me"  
raidou guffawed at that before kakashi nodded his head making raidou speechless.  
"i owe him sake, until i pay up im kinda backed into a corner"  
genma burst out laughing before taunting  
"you own him right now"  
kakashi frowned at his teammate, while iruka wrapped his arm around one of kakashi's.  
"mah he knows not to push his luck, he does live with me and i know many ways to make him surrender."  
iruka sighed but nodded all the same, kurenai smiled at the two of them, things seemed to be working out for them. clapping her hands she drew out the jar with the name tags in it.  
"alright lets draw"  
once they had all drawn tags again, its was asuma's turn to draw doubles. having his extra tag they revealed them.  
kakashi vs genma  
asuma vs raidou  
kurenai vs genma  
asuma vs kakashi  
once they were revealed iruka cheered at seeing the match ups. raidou was muttering about getting iruka back later on. while genma promised him something nice at home to make him feel better. that seemed to perk him up and iruka started shaking his head.  
"alright who's going first?"  
iruka called out in excitement. the others smiled, happy to see a more carefree side of the newly made jounin.   
"we go in order of draw, kakashi, genma your up"  
the two men nodded and made their way out into the field. while they were walking, genma asked.  
"you wanna show off for iruka?"  
the silver haired man snorted before saying.  
"i can beat you without having to show off thank you very much"  
"pft yeah right old man"  
smiling to one another they turned to face one another and the battle began. senbon were soon decorating the ground in neat lines as genma tried to target kakashi without falling under the man's eyes power. it was a tricky skill, but one that all of them had come to understand on some level. launching another round of senbon kept kakashi at bay while he prepared to do his dust cloud jutsu, blanketing the area in a thick cloud of dark dust, nothing could be seen through it.  
coughing iruka pulled his shirt over his mouth before saying.  
"damn, how are you supposed to see anything"  
"your not, that’s the point"  
raidou called out, looking to where he knew the man to be he couldn’t see anything. sighing he waited with the others for the battle to either end, or the dust to clear. whichever came first.  
a sudden gust of wind carried the dust away revealing what had taken place in the eerie silence between the two battlers. genma was on the ground, kakashi was still standing, though he had a couple cuts from weapons having been thrown his way.  
"you alright love"  
raidou cried out a crossed the field. the man raised a thumbs up and raidou nodded. iruka watched as kakashi stalked over to genma and peered down at him before the two talked a moment before kakashi held out a hand to help the man up. once that was done and they were both on equal footing they headed back towards the meeting place. genma plopped down next to raidou and rotated his shoulder as if it had been hit hard. looking to kakashi who was taking his seat iruka had to ask.  
"ok we missed something didn’t we?"  
genma nodded before saying.  
"i thought i put up the dust up in time, but he was faster. caught me good in the side and shoulder, i was able to drive him back though before i fell."  
iruka smiled at the energetic nin and turned to kakashi who was wiping a trail of blood away from the top of his hand. iruka took his hand and squeezed.  
" well even though we couldn’t see it, seems like a good match"  
the others chuckled at iruka, while asuma and raidou got up to start their own match. turning to watch, iruka turned swiftly back around when someone touched his hand. smiling at kurenai he waited to see what she wanted.  
"pay close attention, you'll see how to get past both of their defenses"  
smiling iruka nodded and turned around just in time to see raidou use his own body as a battering ram and collide with asuma, forcing the man's arms up and away from slicing him with his blades and knocking him forcefully to the ground. iruka winced. that had to hurt. he'd been on the receiving end of raidou’s kicks and punches, but never a full body slam like that. just as he though the match was over, asuma flipped himself back to his feet and nodded. and then they were at it again. turning to kakashi he asked.  
"raidou ever do that to you?"  
"once or twice, he knows better now, but when we first teamed up he got lucky a couple times."  
"that had to hurt"  
kakashi grinned and nodded before turning back towards the fight taking place. raidou was dodging the trench blades that asuma had fully charged with his chakra. the blue glow telling everyone to stay clear of them lest they wanted to have a deep gouge taken out of them. this time it was asuma's blow who landed, but right before the blue would have landed, asuma let the chakra go and use the base of the weapon to knock raidou back instead of the actual blade. raidou slid back a couple paces and rubbed his side, a small ache compared to a deadly wound that would have been. and just like that the match was settled, asuma won. the two didn’t seem upset at each other for the traded blows though, they were laughing and smiling to each other the entire way back. waiting for them to return iruka asked.  
"how'd you know to remove your chakra in time?"  
"practice, we've had plenty of accidents on and off the field"  
iruka nodded at the statement before smiling and turning to say.  
"you didn’t land on your ass, but it was still nice to see you actually be human instead of a brick wall"  
raidou chuckled at him and nodded.  
"im not a brick wall, i just know how to hold myself when attacking and defending, you'll figure it out"  
iruka nodded before waiting for the next match to begin. genma groaned while getting to his feet while kurenai rubbed her hands together. iruka smiled and asked what that was about. kakashi filled him in as the two made their way out to the field.  
"when genma first joined the group he said that genjitsu wasn’t a real art and that anyone could do it, now he has to pay the price for his earlier statements. she is going to trounce his ass and he's never going to get to make a move on her. happens every time. he's yet to figure out how to get around her defenses"  
iruka whistled low and watched as indeed what kakashi said was true, as soon as the signal was given, genma got a step, and three senbon sailing towards her before kurenai was gone one instant and reappearing the next to genjitsu him. genma's body froze and kurenai was left smiling as she undoubtedly tortured him with something.  
"whats she showing him?"  
having been on the other side of her abilities, iruka wanted to know what genma was afraid of. raidou smiled before saying.  
"could be his past sensei, his first girlfriend, who knows, either way she likes to make it fun"  
iruka shook his head just as genma was released from the illusion, he was whining to kurenai about how unfair it was, but she just kept laughing the entire way back to the group. once she rejoined them she took her place beside asuma and snorted as genma tried one last time to convince her.  
"come on you have to admit, that was cruel and unusual torture."  
"what did she show you?"  
iruka asked somewhat eagerly. genma frowned at him before turning back to kurenai who was just smiling at him. huffing genma leaned against raidou and bemoaned the cruelty of his own teammates. his teammates just shook their heads and continued on with the matches. the last match of the day was between asuma and kakashi. the two hadn’t stood up to take their places when iruka asked what was going on.  
"their calculating how likely it is that they will win against one another. its like a chess game with these two"  
iruka nodded and waited patiently before kakashi nodded and asuma sighed.  
"that’s it?"  
"no reason for them to get cut up when they already know the outcome, they'll train of course for the sake of training, but when its just for fun there’s no reason for them to bother."  
turning to kakashi he asked.  
"who won?"  
"me"  
iruka smiled before shrugging his shoulders and asking what was gonna happen now. the group smiled before suggesting that they go out to eat before heading their separate ways. once they had gathered up all the strewn weapons and gear they headed back into town and made their way to a nice sushi place. sitting together they waited for the waitress to take their drink orders before talking.  
"so are you nervous?"  
genma asked. iruka nodded before explaining.  
"its been a long time since i've been outside the walls here, let alone fighting missing nin's"  
"you'll be fine, just remember that they aren’t going to let you go, you have to go in for the kill if that’s what it takes to bring you home"  
asuma told him with confidence. iruka smiled at the stronger man and asked if they had any other advice for him.  
"who’s the team leader?"  
"didn’t say"  
"well make sure your all in agreement on who is in charge before you leave the walls of konoha, you don’t want to be in the middle of a battle arguing over whose right and whose wrong"  
nodding his head iruka took a mental note to make sure he did that. kurenai put a hand on his arm before speaking.  
"just come home in one piece and everything will be ok"  
"that’s my plan"  
she smiled at him before glancing back to her menu, once they had ordered and their drinks had been brought to them, they continued their conversation.  
"what rank is the mission did it say?"  
"no, but it wasn’t classified, just came in the regular blue scrolls we see all the time"  
nodding his head raidou thought a moment before asking.  
"and you've never met your teammates?"  
shaking his head, iruka wasn’t sure where this was going.  
"you should try and find them after were through here to make sure that your all on the same page. you don’t want any slip ups before you even leave the village"  
"that would suck"  
the others nodded their heads and started to eat as soon as their food arrived, iruka chewed thoughtfully, he wasn’t sure if he should ask this or not, but decided why the hell not.  
"umm question"  
"shoot"  
"should i use my summons?"  
kakashi had dreaded this, he wasn’t sure if he should speak his peace on the subject right now or wait for iruka to get back from the mission. it was kurenai who broached the subject with quite a bit of grace.  
"can you control them?"  
"i believe so"  
"if you cant say that you have 100% control over them, don’t."  
raidou suggested quite firmly. nodding his head iruka took another bite of food and thought some more about his summons, he trusted them, but in an unlikely way. he knew that they would back stab him if it suited them, but he also knew they had a sense of pride about them and he could appeal to that. moving on from that topic iruka decided to announce their plans for when he got back.  
"were going to celebrate when i get back and go for sake"  
"were in"  
genma replied chipperly. the others laughed and nodded that they too were in for the celebration. iruka smiled, he never thought he would have this many friends, let alone these amazing people who were surrounding him. smiling around his bite of food he leaned against kakashi's shoulder and relaxed. this was nice, this feeling of closeness to other people.   
"you be careful while you out there"  
kurenai reiterated as they finished up their meal. iruka smiled to her and promised to be careful. as they left the restaurant they were about to go their own ways when the red eyed woman hugged him. asuma was smiling at him from behind kurenai. iruka smiled at him until they broke away.  
"i'll be back in a week, i'll see you guys then alright"  
"for sake"  
genma cheered, iruka nodded at the energetic man before heading down the road with kakashi.  
" you can go back to the apartment while i find these guys. i wont be long"  
"you sure?"  
"yeah, all im gonna do is say hi and ask where they want to meet tomorrow morning"  
nodding his head kakashi squeezed his hand once before letting go and disappearing in a flash of smoke. leaving iruka standing alone in the middle of the empty street. sighing at the feeling of being alone for the first time in the last twenty four hours, iruka headed to the main mission office to see where he could track down his new teammates.

**********

kakashi was in the middle of an argument, a very heated argument, it was poor timing he knew, but it couldn’t be helped.  
"im telling you no, i don’t care what you think, its not happening"  
"your being unreasonable"  
kakashi shook his head once again.  
"im not risking it"  
"its not your decision"  
"i have a say"  
"somewhat, but that’s besides the point, you cant just say no to something like that, you have to think about it for a little while at least"  
huffing out a breath kakashi refused to look him in the eye, instead he stared out the balcony door.  
"kakashi"  
"i know i know, still doesn’t change the fact that i hate this situation"  
"you knew it would happen eventually"  
"eventually doesn’t have to be tomorrow"  
kakashi heard the snort in his direction and sighed.  
"you really think it wouldn’t work"  
"i know it wouldn’t"  
collapsing into his chair he sighed.  
"i just wanted to help"  
"i know"  
"then what am i supposed to do"  
"wait, that’s all you can do, its only a week"  
"that’s going to feel like an eternity"  
"your being dramatic, take some day missions to keep yourself busy"  
nodding his head, kakashi let his head fall back against the chairs backing and stair at the ceiling. he was about to say something when the door unlocked and he heard the sounds of iruka slipping off his sandals as he came in the door. turning to his guest he reiterated.  
"not one word"  
"understood"  
iruka came into the room smiling and it broadened when he saw who was with kakashi.  
"hello again pakkun"  
"runt"  
iruka smiled and laughed a little at the nickname given to him by the ninken. coming over to this own chair iruka asked what the two of them had been up too.  
"not much, just talking, boss is gonna take some day missions while your gone so he doesn’t go stir crazy waiting for your return."  
"pakkun!"  
iruka smiled before stating.  
"im sure he'll be just fine without me for a couple days. its only a week after all."  
"that’s what i said"  
smiling to the dog iruka looked up to kakashi and asked  
"and what did you have to say on the matter?"  
"nothing"  
iruka raised a brow at that before stating. bullshit. sighing kakashi spoke up.  
"ok im a little nervous about your first mission, i have full faith that you'll do it with no problems, i just want to make sure your prepared for what the mission is asking of you"  
"im going to have to kill someone"  
"yes"  
iruka took a deep breath and nodded.  
"im nervous about that too, but there’s nothing i can do about it. i cant hide away and refuse to go on missions. i became a shinobi kakashi certainly that means doing unpleasant things from time to time."  
the silver haired nin nodded his head.  
"i know, i just wish you didn’t have to do so on your first mission out of the gate."  
smiling iruka got up from his chair and came to kneel between kakashi's knees. wrapping himself around the man's chest.  
"me too"  
pakkun watched on in silence as the two embraced one another. he had no doubt that they had grown closer over the last little bit, but to actually see his boss show physical affection made him rethink kakashi's plan. to bad it wouldn’t work though. curling up on the couch he left them to their own devices, he knew this was their last night together before iruka had to leave for his mission and wasn’t about to intrude on that. in the end pakkun didn’t have to worry, all they ended up doing was snuggle in bed and read some. when it started getting later, kakashi practically demanded that iruka fall asleep. the jounin chuckled but went along with it.  
"aye aye captain"  
snorting kakashi smiled when he felt iruka settle down beside him. stashing his book away he turned to face the man and cuddle a little more before falling to sleep.  
"iruka"  
"hmm"  
"wake me up before you go"  
"you'll wake up the moment i try and get out of bed"  
"ok"  
with that the pair fell asleep in each others arms. there were no nightmares, no bad dreams or errant thoughts to plague them. just them, together.

morning came too soon for iruka's taste, but he knew better than to dawdle. smiling at the pleasant face of kakashi who was still presently asleep next to him.  
"kashi"  
"hmm"  
"time to get up"  
mismatched eyes opened, awake in an instant upon command. iruka smiled at him and kakashi smiled back.  
"go take a shower and i'll fix you some breakfast."  
nodding his head iruka leaned forward and kissed him before heading off for the shower. ten minutes later he was walking into the living room and greeting a rather cranky pakkun who was complaining about the time of day.  
"sorry pakkun, its all my fault, he wanted to get up with me to see me off"  
the dog grumbled at bit before nodding and curling back up into a ball and falling back to sleep.  
"ignore him, he's always a grouch in the morning"  
iruka smiled as he took the offered cup of tea that was waiting for him in the kitchen. leaning against the cabinets he watched as kakashi expertly cooked up a healthy breakfast.  
"i should go on more missions if i get to eat like this"  
kakakshi snorted at him before saying.  
"your going to be running all day, you'll need the energy"  
"you had to spoil it"  
kakashi grinned at him before joining him in eating breakfast. they ate in silence before putting the dishes in the sink for kakashi to clean later. returning to the bedroom kakashi watched as iruka put on his jounin attire and checked his weapons pouches to make sure they were securely on and filled with everything he might need.  
"you set?"  
turning around iruka nodded to kakashi. the silver haired nin nodded back. walking forward he kissed kakashi one last time before pulling away.  
"its just a week"  
"just a week"  
smiling iruka turned to go get his sandals on, kakashi followed behind him. once he was officially prepared he turned and said goodbye.  
"i'll see you in a week"  
"be on time"  
smiling iruka nodded before heading out the door. the door clicked shut and kakashi sighed. only a week.


	44. together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> iruka's mission comes to an end. kakashi has to wait and see if the jounin will return safely from his first mission as a jounin or if the assassination mission was too much for iruka and his team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second chapter of the day. the last chapter. god its so sad to say that, but the story is complete. i hope you all enjoy the ending to this story, thank you for sticking around for all 44 chapters. what a ride. 
> 
> this is one of the longest stories i've written to date, it was the first story i ever posted in its entirety on the internet that i was actually proud of. i've grown a lot as a writer from reading other author's fan fiction and finding ways to spin my own stories. i still have a lot to learn im sure, but writing pieces like this and getting the great response i've gotten from all of you has made all that work worth while.

iruka was exhausted, muddy and in pain, not that his teammates were much better. the whole mission ended up being a long tiresome fiasco. to not only get the book which was indeed with missing nins, but to manage to kill said nins turned out to be much harder than expected seeing as they weren’t your run of the mill idiots. so there they were, the three of them, hobbling down the last stretch of road to konoha, dragging one another the entire way. iruka's knee had already turned five shades of ugly purple and he didn’t need to guess that crutches were in his future. every step felt like a fire hot blade was digging into his flesh, it almost felt the same as ibiki's damn med nin blade. snorting to himself iruka shook his head when the two men looked his way tiredly to see what was the matter.   
"sorry-just tired"  
the other two nodded their heads. there was no doubt about it that they were all tired. as it was ginto had a badly dislocated shoulder, they'd tried to put it back, but after a couple tries and much muffled screaming on the poor mans part they gave up. iruka was beginning to think that maybe it was broken and not dislocated. jui didn’t come out unscathed either, though his was a little more easy to manage, a broken hand was easy compared to iruka's hobbling steps. finally they came around the corner of the path that lead to konoha's great red gate. iruka sighed, it was a sight to behold that was for sure. he wanted to sleep for a week, eat like a horse and commandeer a certain anbu captain. iruka was just relieved that they had made it back within the one week timeline. today was the last day, and the sun was starting to set behind them. he could only imagine how worried kakashi must be.   
making there way through the gate they nodded to the guards who politely asked if they needed help, shaking their heads they continued on through the village. they had made it this far, they could make it the rest of the way. it took some effort on all of their parts to get up the stairs to the mission room to turn in their report and the book. then it was off to the med nins, iruka wanted to stop and see kakashi first, but his teammates wouldn’t hear of it.  
"you need to get that knee looked at, hatake-san can wait"  
"ano i guess so"  
ginto nodded through gritted teeth as he held his shoulder.  
"come on, lets get moving its gonna take us a while to get there"  
they smiled to one another as they hobbled out of the mission room and down the stairs which proved more difficult than going up them as iruka's knee did not like the bending motion of going down the stairs. by the time they reached the bottom he was sweating. looking over the village iruka couldn’t help but think.  
' im home kakashi, just a little banged up, i'll be there soon'  
the trio continued to make their way to the hospital in a slow but steady pace.

************

kakashi was pacing, not that his teammates could blame him, they had expected iruka's team to get home hours ago, the sun had set and still there was no sign of him.  
"kakashi this happens all the time, their running late"  
the silver haired man nodded his head before questioning.  
"but why are they running late?"  
the team looked to one another, they didn’t know what to say to their distraught friend, they couldn’t blame him for being worried. this was iruka's first mission and the fact that it had been assassination made all their skin crawl at all the things that could go wrong. so they stayed by kakashi's side as he paced his living room waiting. 

**********

iruka sighed, he was now more tired than when he had first entered the gates, his leg was firmly wrapped and the crutches dug in painfully into his sides as he swung himself to the bottom of the staircase that lead to their apartment. it was already dark out and he could only hope that kakashi wouldn’t be mad for making him worry. sighing, iruka started the slow progress up the stairs, silently cursing each one as he went.

********

"try to relax, your going to give yourself grey hairs"  
the scowl he got made genma smile sheepishly before leaning against raidou some more. just as he was about to retort that the death glare wasn’t going to help their situation, the door unlocked. kakashi twisted around immediately, just in time to see iruka hobble into the living room on crutches. he was filthy, obviously tired and had blood splattered across his own uniform. before he could contain himself kakashi launched himself and started tugging on the man's uniform zipper to see where the wounds were.  
"not mine not mine kakashi"  
that stilled his hands, looking up kakashi saw the bright smile of the man that he had come to love.  
"its not mine"  
kakashi wrapped his arms around iruka tightly, constricting the poor man to his own body. in the process their legs came together and iruka yelped out.  
"mine mine"  
kakashi let go instantly and pulled away, his hands in the air to not hurt iruka any more than he already had. iruka smiled at him and looked down, following his gaze kakashi frowned at seeing the man's pants having been ripped off above the knee and a brace of sorts being latched around the man's calve. iruka smiled at the people who were now standing behind kakashi as the jounin knelt down to get a better look at his knee wound.  
"hi guys"  
they smiled at him and genma cheered out.  
"man you really must have wanted some sake to walk on that"  
iruka laughed while shaking his head, kakashi straightened himself out and helped iruka over to his chair, it was hard to get him down properly, but once they did iruka sighed and let kakashi take the crutches. kakashi couldn’t put into words how relieved he was, when he had seen the blood he had thought iruka had come straight home instead of seeking medical help. to hear him say it wasn’t his was like a breath of fresh air filled his lungs. putting the crutches aside, kakashi turned in time to see iruka trying to get the brace off.  
"what are you doing?"  
"im allowed too, doctors said to let it breath, so long as i don’t walk on it without the brace"  
kakashi was skeptical, but knelt down to help iruka get the final latch on the complicated brace off before moving it gingerly away from the man's leg to set on the coffee table. turning back around he frowned, iruka's knee was deeply bruised, the discoloration making it seem like it was either dislocated or broken all together. before he could ask, genma cut him off.  
"damn, that looks nasty, what’d you do?"  
iruka smiled at him before commenting.  
"it wasn’t what i did, its what someone else did"  
genma nodded waiting to hear the explanation.  
" guy grabbed my leg while i was trying to phase, i twisted around to kick him in the head and he wrenched my whole leg sideways as he fell."  
the group winced, that did indeed sound painful.  
"i still got the damn book though"  
they burst out laughing at that, leave it to iruka to see the bright side of things. kakashi smiled at him, he was immensely proud of iruka, but he'd wait until they were alone to tell him so. it was raidou who spoke next.  
"we should let you get some rest, and a shower by the looks of it. we can get sake another time"  
iruka pouted, but kurenai backed up her teammate.  
"he's right, you'll want some clean clothes and after a shower your probably gonna crash whether you think so or not"  
iruka nodded his head.  
"yeah i figured as much, but it was worth a shot"  
smiling at him they wished him a good night and to behave for kakashi.  
"we'll see you guys tomorrow then"  
kakashi nodded as he escorted them out. once they were down the stairs, he shut the door and returned to the living room. iruka was right where he left him, but he was reaching for the crutches.  
"what are you doing, you don’t have the brace on"  
iruka snorted before reclining back in the chair.  
"like you listen to doctors all the time"  
"doesn’t matter, your going too"  
iruka pouted again, but waited patiently while kakashi retrieved the brace and helped him put it back on. once it was securely placed around his knee kakashi gave iruka the crutches and helped him out of the chair. once iruka was balanced, he released him.  
"shower?"  
"oh my god yes"  
kakashi smiled at him and motioned him to follow. once they were in the bathroom, iruka took a hesitant seat on the toilet seat while kakashi got the water up to temperature.  
"how we going to do this?, i cant exactly take the crutches in with me?"  
kakashi snorted before commenting.  
"i would have liked to see you try that, but no, im gonna climb in with you to help you balance so you don’t put any pressure on your knee."  
iruka nodded, a faint blush on his cheeks which make kakashi chuckle a little. once the water was to temperature they started stripping. iruka had no problems with his chest gear, but the pants...they were another matter.   
"get a knife, their ruined anyways"  
nodding his head, kakashi retrieved a kunai and easily and expertly sliced the hems of the pants to get them off. then it was just a matter of underwear and they both stood naked. kakashi easily lifted iruka into the shower, stepping in after him as iruka had a death grip on his arms.  
"relax i wont let you fall"  
iruka nodded but couldn’t seem to relax his grip, he knew how much it would hurt to step on his injured knee again, it was not something he wished to experience if he had a choice in the matter. kakashi braced iruka against his own chest to help him relax and held him around the waist. soon enough the hot water and the fact that he was in kakashi's arms lulled iruka to relax against the taller man. while they were washing iruka's hair kakashi asked.  
"no other injuries?"  
"on me, no"  
kakashi nodded and left it at that, he was sure that iruka would talk about the mission if he needed too. once they had bathed and iruka no longer smelled of sweat and blood, they climbed out the same way they had gotten in. kakashi bracing iruka's full weight against himself to allow iruka not to have to put any pressure on the injured knee. getting dry was another feat in ingenuity, the two ninja balancing and twisting to get each other dry before getting iruka's brace back on. wrapping themselves in robes, the crutches were handed back to him and the pair made their way back into the living room.  
"im gonna guess you want something to eat besides ration bars"  
iruka snorted and kakashi nodded before heading into the kitchen to make something for them to eat. idly raising his voice so as to have a conversation with iruka at the same time.  
"you finished your first assignment, im going to guess that all the requirements were met"  
"yeah, its taken care of. that book better be something special"  
"i doubt it, but at least you got it back"  
kakashi heard iruka laugh and smiled as he finished preparing their simple meal. bringing out two plates he handed one over to iruka and sat on the coffee table so as to be as close to iruka as he could. iruka smiled at him around a bite of food.   
"so did you miss me?"  
kakashi leered at him.  
"no not at all, was just about to volunteer to send my team after your team, but that’s normal."  
iruka nodded his head.  
"i missed you too. the two guys i was with were alright company, but they weren’t much for conversation"  
kakashi let out a chuckle. as he continued to watch iruka eat. taking bites of his own food every once and a while.   
"i was worried you'd be mad"  
kakashi raised a brow before asking why.  
"technically we were late, well i was late getting back, cause of our stop at the hospital. ginto and jui wouldn’t hear of letting me come and tell you i was back, until i got my knee looked at properly"  
"and they were right, you shouldn’t come home until the med nin's clear you, especially with an injury like that. it had to hurt walking on it all this time."  
iruka shook his head.  
"like you wouldn’t believe, but i'd kinda grown used to the pain if that makes any sense, and i really just wanted to see you again."  
leaning forward, the unmasked man kissed iruka lightly before pulling away.  
"im glad you missed me, but im glad you got help first"  
iruka smiled shyly before nodding his head. he was relieved to know that kakashi wasn’t mad at him and instead had just been worried for his safety.   
"you know i had a whole plan about returning, then my knee got wrecked"  
kakashi smiled at him, sliding onto his knees onto the floor before iruka, he placed his arms on iruka's calves and leaned up to give him a kiss. iruka didn’t have to move much to accept it and the two enjoyed being able to be close to one another again. when they broke apart for air, iruka smiled.  
"that was nice, i'd like more please"  
kakashi smirked and dove forward to crash their lips together in a tangle of flesh, their tongues dueling for dominance as they held one another close. iruka widened his hips, allowing kakashi to get closer, wrapping an arm around the silver haired nin's back and head he refused to allow kakashi to leave him until he was done exploring his mouth. in turn, kakashi arched himself up to his full height on his knees instead of slouching as he had been. allowing him to wrap his arm around iruka's waist and use the other hand to grasp iruka's head to keep them as close as possible.  
of course the need for air arose and they were forced to break apart lest one of them pass out, which with the way they were acting was an entirely possible thing. catching their breaths they had goofy smiles on their faces as they adored one another’s faces.   
"mah i think we can work around the knee"  
iruka raised an eyebrow at that, he wasn’t so sure about that, but before he could say anything kakashi was grasping his ass and pulling him to straddle his hips as kakashi stood up, all in one single effortless motion. once he was standing, cradling iruka to him kakashi headed down the hallway to their bedroom. iruka set his head down on kakashi's shoulder as he laughed.  
"your crazy you know that"  
"some say genius"  
laughing all the more, iruka wasn’t surprised when he was gently placed onto his side of the bed and helped to get comfortable. with his leg now straightened out he sighed, all the moving had really made him sore. kakashi climbed into bed with iruka, kissing him when he got close enough. iruka smiled into the kiss and wrapped his arms around kakashi's neck, forcing the man closer to his body. kakashi maneuvered himself around iruka's leg so that he was straddling the man's thigh, making sure that his legs didn’t come into contact with iruka's damaged knee as he did so. the two kissed again, drawing it out for as long as they dared before the need for air became too much for one another. separating kakashi smiled at iruka.  
"you scared me tonight, im afraid im going to have to punish you for that"  
iruka smirked before shaking his head back and forth. kakashi nodded his head in time with his own shaking head. finally kakashi scooted his body down so that he could start kissing down iruka's neck, around to his favorite spot earning a groan from the man underneath him. smirking kakashi nibbled at the skin delicately, making sure not to bite down too hard. iruka groaned as kakashi paid special attention to the joining of his neck and shoulder, but slowly ever so slowly kakashi trailed down, kissed his chest, stopping to lave at his exposed nipple.   
kakashi pushed aside iruka's robe to get access to the man's chest and took his time paying attention to the man's pecks. lathing at the exposed flesh before letting small little love bites trail down to the man's rib cage where he knew his lover to be extra sensitive. smirking to himself kakashi nibbled on the man's chest earning him a stifled laugh as iruka fought back the urge to hit him on the head. kakashi quickly moved on once he had garnered the response he'd wanted.   
trailing kisses down further south, he massaged iruka's hips and thighs as he moved lower. trailing kisses as he went until he was forced to stop to untie the robes sash. with that out of the way kakashi splayed out the cloth around them, revealing iruka in all his perfection to the world. iruka blushed which made kakashi smile. finally he made it to his goal, the apex of iruka's legs. kissing from the outside of his thigh, kakashi made his way around the curve of the leg before leaning forward to lathe at the top of the man's half hard member. iruka buckled at the slightest touch, but kakashi easily held firm and refused to be bucked off as he continued his exploration. gently he brought the member into his mouth and began to suck slowly.   
drawing out the sensations for iruka as the man tried to get closer to him than possible. kakashi used his arms to gently push iruka back into the bed before continuing with his mission to make iruka turn to jello. sucking on the hardening member in his mouth kakashi rubbed the man's thighs with is thumbs enticing him to become erect in his mouth at his control. it hardly took any time before iruka was panting in bed with his hard member being tortured in kakashi's mouth. smiling around the organ he was paying attention too, kakashi took in the sight of iruka biting his lip as his hands clenched the bed sheets. it was quite a pleasant sight for the sharingan user. who had managed to move his hitae off enough to be seeing through both eyes for this little event.  
letting his tongue join the fun, he swirled it around the member in his mouth before trailing along the underside of the thick organ's main vein. making sure that he was perfectly balanced before he removed his hand from iruka's thigh, kakashi brought his hand up to tease iruka's quivering balls. swirling them around in his hand like meditation chimes. causing iruka to buck into his mouth at the new sensation. kakashi smiled to himself as he continued to torture his lover in one the best ways he could think of. sucking harder, he drew the hard member deeper into his mouth and allowed it to slide into the back of his throat. kakashi could tell that iruka wasn’t going to last much longer, the man's groans having risen in pitch and consistency as his thighs quivered at the strain of holding still.  
deciding that enough was enough and that it was time to stop torturing his lover, kakashi increased the activities of his errant tongue and drew the hard organ out until just the tip remained in his mouth before devouring the entire thing in one stroke. he heard iruka gasp at the sudden change and withheld laughing, he knew iruka wasn’t used to this type of behavior. beginning a more traditional approach, kakashi gave equal amounts of suction as he drew the member in and out of his mouth in a stroking manner. iruka cried out at the harsh tempo kakashi had set for them.  
"gah, ka-kk-ka-kashi"  
smirking around the organ kakashi refused to lessen up on the member, instead giving a couple firm strokes at the base of it with his nimble fingers. iruka cried out again, and kakashi knew the end was soon. it wasn’t more than three more harsh pumps of the hardened flesh before iruka tensed rather suddenly. kakashi was prepared and didn’t bat an eye when his mouth was suddenly being filled with iruka's cum, he swallowed with little effort and once the man had finished coming in his mouth kakashi let the limp member slide from his mouth. kissing the man’s thigh he laid his head against iruka's thigh as the man panted, allowing the deflating organ he had just pleasured to settle on iruka's stomach.   
iruka panted, his body glistening with sweat after his heated orgasm, his hands which had tightened impossibly so around the bed sheets went slack all at once, his legs quivered even though they didn’t have to hold him up. he gulped in lung fulls of air as he tried to compose himself. it took a couple minutes before he was able to coherently think. reaching with his hand, iruka was able to massage kakashi's head as he spoke.  
"that was a horrible punishment"  
kakashi smirked against the man's thigh, giving it a gentle kiss before leaning more into the hand that was stroking his hair pleasantly. once he had gathered his wits, iruka opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment. there was something he wanted to ask of kakashi and he figured now was as good of a time as any. reaching down iruka tugged at the man's robe, getting kakashi to not only shrug out of the offensive cloth but move up towards his head. once there iruka smiled at the man. trailing a hand down kakashi's face iruka couldn’t help but let his eyes go from one mismatched eye to another.  
"something you needed?"  
kakashi questioned, iruka smirked and nodded his head.  
"i wanted to ask you something"  
"ask away"  
laying there, both their heads on the same pillow, iruka took a deep breath before leaning in and kissing kakashi once before snuggling into the man's chest.  
"will you-i mean can you-"  
"iruka just say it, it cant be that bad"  
blushing the jounin snuggled closer to the man who he had fallen in love with. he felt kakashi's arms come around him and he smiled. this is what he longed for and now he had it.  
"i want...i want to have sex"  
kakashi was quiet a moment, he knew this was a big step for iruka and he didn’t want to say the wrong thing.   
"your sure"  
"yeah"  
kakashi smiled, pulling iruka back a little he made sure that iruka understood.  
"because i don’t want you to do this if your not ready"  
iruka nodded his head before saying.  
"im ready"  
"ok, so long as your sure"  
iruka nodded his head a final time before leaning up and kissing kakashi. kakashi returned the kiss and soon iruka found himself in an odd position. laying on his back with kakashi over him, the anbu had a puzzled look on his face and iruka followed his gaze down to his knee.   
"thought you could work around that?"  
he teased. kakashi snorted before rectifying the situation.  
"i can, i just want to make sure your ok"  
"im fine"  
kakashi looked at him a moment before nodding his head and positioning himself in between iruka's thighs, knelt down kakashi gently took iruka's injured leg and draped it over his hip bone, iruka followed his lead and did the same with his uninjured side. once the knee was taken care of, kakashi scooted himself forward, as close as he could be without actually penetrating iruka. once he was as comfortable as he was going to be kakashi nodded to iruka and pointed to the dresser next to the bed. iruka leaned over and opened it to find a bottle of lube. retrieving the bottle he handed it to kakashi and watched as the man, poured some on one of his hands and moved it around. it was semi hypnotizing to watch kakashi go about preparing him, he was so gentle with each step making sure that iruka wasn’t overwhelmed.  
now that his hand was lubed, kakashi gently lifted iruka's hips and found his opening with his lubed fingers, with one digit he gently probed the orifice, there was a tiny amount of resistance, but not nearly the amount that he had been expecting for iruka's first time since mizuki. once he had gotten iruka used to one digit, he moved onto two, scissoring them gently to get iruka accustomed to the change. iruka just continued to smile at him every time kakashi checked on him. after he introduced three fingers and was able to move them without pausing, kakashi removed them, grabbing the lube again he poured a generous amount into his hand and lubed his own hard member before adjusting both him and iruka. once they were lined up the jounin checked one final time before pressing forward.  
inching forward, kakashi allowed just the tip of himself to enter the man below him before checking on iruka who was staring at him.  
"im fine"  
nodding his head he proceeded slowly, only to grimace when iruka pushed down with his hips to speed up the process. they both groaned at the sensation of kakashi slipping further into the mans channel. kakashi glared at iruka shortly after coming to his senses.  
“you have to be patient.”  
iruka snorted and shook his head.  
“im fine. keep going.”  
glaring down at his lover a moment, the jounin nodded his head begrudgingly before he began the slow task of inching further into iruka. bit by bit he allowed his member to sink into the warmth, the pair of them groaning as the mans hard member penetrated iruka. it took a few moments, but kakashi slowly fed himself into iruka’s body. they both groaned when kakashi managed to be completely within iruka.  
"are you ok?"  
iruka nodded his head, his mouth hanging open as he gasped a little.  
"im fine, it feels good"  
kakashi smiled at his lover, he was determined to make it feel even better by the end of it. now that iruka had adjusted to the size of him, they were able to start a slow but steady rhythm between the two of them. kakashi withdrew nearly to the tip before surging forward to the hilt. iruka arched his back and gasped out loud at the sensation of kakashi penetrating him so completely.  
"gah guh, hard-harder"  
kakashi smiled as he began to increase the tempo of his thrusts, making sure that he wasn’t too rough, but forceful enough to create the friction they both were craving now. kakashi thrust himself forward, grinding against his lover before pulling back and nearly separating the two of them, iruka for his part was beginning to help with the thrusting, it was limited due to his knee, but it was enough to show that he was enjoying what they were doing. kakashi arched himself forward in mid thrust bringing them almost impossibly closer to one another in the midst of their pleasure. deciding that a change was needed, kakashi gently lifted iruka to sit astride his hips all while still deeply embedded in the man. iruka nearly screamed at the pleasure that shook his body as kakashi struck something deep inside of him. kakashi smiled and arched upwards to strike the bundle of nerves again causing iruka to quiver in his arms. he dove forward as he began to arch into iruka a third time to kiss the man he loved deeply.  
the two sat like this a while as their raging heartbeats pounded in their chests, kakashi was determined to bring iruka the utmost amount of pleasure that he could. flexing his hips again he stroked upwards into iruka causing the man to groan against his shoulder where iruka had all but collapsed against him. kakashi could feel iruka's pleasure through iruka's pressure on his shoulder, iruka's teeth being firmly wrapped around kakashi's pale shoulder. iruka tried to be gentle with his biting but kakashi seemed determined to make him draw blood. with each thrust they drew closer and closer to the end. with each thrust they cried out for more.  
"gah, yes"  
"hnng guh"  
"more"  
"onegi"  
"ruka, so close"  
"me too"  
kakashi allowed iruka to fall backwards back into the bed below them as he took back over the complete motion of their pleasure. thrusting harder and harder into his lover as he allowed his free hand to stroke iruka's leaking member between them. iruka arched his back, which was sure to be sore tomorrow as he cried out for more. kakashi grit his teeth, his own completion was nearing. grunting against iruka he thrust forward, his organ piercing through his lover as he pulled in and out to bring them more pleasure. feeling that they were about to lose control, kakashi sped up his pace, giving little time for them to breath as they thrust against one another like animals in heat. the grunting grew in ferocity between them, no more words being able to be spoken. finally on the cusp of orgasming, kakashi forced himself as deep as he could go into iruka and arched his own back while forcing iruka to sit astride him once more. the reaction was instantaneous. iruka screamed. his organ pulsing between them as he came in thick rivulets of cum, the syrup like liquid landed on their stomachs and thighs, while kakashi continued to thrust into iruka during his own orgasm. his hot cum filling iruka completely. as his thrusts died down they collapsed onto the bed. both panting harshly at the lovemaking that had just taken place between them. kakashi was the first to gain some measure of decor of himself, he reluctantly withdrew from iruka and grimaced as the pleasure racing through his body begged for another round. rolling over the side of iruka he was careful not to jostle the man's injured knee. iruka turned and snuggled into his side. they kissed one another passionately before breaking apart.  
"thank you"  
iruka said, love in his voice. kakashi smiled, sweat beading down his body as he wrapped iruka in his arms.  
"i love you"  
there was silence and kakashi began to dread what he had just said when iruka chuckled.  
"about time you caught up"  
kakashi smirked looking down to the jounin in his arms he kissed iruka's forehead.  
"mah im a genius but a slow learner"  
"bullshit"  
they had a light chuckle as they settled in to bed together. sweat slicked and dirty from their lovemaking they could have cared less. they were together, in love and finally had found a home together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its done. i hope you enjoyed this story. please leave kudos and comments to let me know what you thought of the ending. 
> 
> in response to numerous people asking about a sequel, i haven't yet written anything else in this timeline. I do have notes on where i would like a sequel to go, so its not out of the picture for me to do so. its just not something that's on the table right now. it usually takes me months to complete a story. from writing it to editing to posting. this story took close to four months to write and another three to edit. so please be patient with me if your seeking a sequel. there's always the chance that i might choose to write one of the many other stories i have in mind first. i will get back around to this timeline im sure. its just a matter of when that happens. 
> 
> thank you once again for all your love and support in this piece. i hope to see many of you return for my future works.


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